Identical twin brothers escaped death penalty in a Malaysian drug trafficking trial after a court ruled that authorities could not prove which man committed the alleged crime, media reports said on Saturday.
“I can’t be sending the wrong person to the gallows,” the New Straits Times quoted the judge as saying.
Police arrested the 27-year-old brothers in 2003 after they found opium and marijuana in a house to which one of the twins had the key. The Kuala Lumpur High Court Judge Zaharah Ibrahim ruled on Friday that only the twin with the key could be proven to be the owner of the drugs.
The brothers’ identical features made it impossible for officers to point out which one had been found with the key, she had no choice but to acquit both men. She called the ruling “a very unique case”.