SINGAPORE — A 24-year-old man was sentenced to five years’ jail and five strokes of the cane on Tuesday (Sept 29) for selling almost 5g of cannabis, also known as weed or marijuana, to another man.

Donovan Liew Wee Kiat was studying at the Singapore Institute of Management Global Education at the time of his arrest in October last year.

Court documents did not reveal if he is still a student there or what he studied.

He pleaded guilty to one count of trafficking in a Class A controlled drug. District Judge Ronald Gwee imposed the mandatory minimum punishment for the offence, an outcome that the prosecution had requested.

The court heard that Liew had sold cannabis many times to Muhammad Yusoff Sallim, 36. Yusoff has since been admitted to the Drug Rehabilitation Centre.

In the wee hours of July 11 last year, he sold a packet of the drugs to Yusoff at a car park near Block 3, Dover Crescent for S$380.

Central Narcotics Bureau officers later arrested Yusoff, who admitted to buying the cannabis from someone he knew as “Don”.

Liew was then arrested on Oct 7 last year for trafficking in and consuming a controlled drug, as well as possessing drug utensils. He was charged only with the trafficking offence.

Analysts from the Health Sciences Authority found that he had sold at least 4.93g of cannabis to Yusoff.

Liew, who was previously out on bail, began serving his sentence on Tuesday.

He could have been jailed up to 20 years and given up to 15 strokes of the cane.

Last month, in an unrelated case, a 24-year-old man was sentenced to 27 years’ jail and the maximum 24 strokes of the cane for trafficking and possessing at least 499.99g of cannabis.

Muhammad Shahrukh Khan Mohamed Rosli also admitted to consuming methamphetamine and possessing ecstasy and diamorphine. He had previously served reformative training for drug-related offences.