Justice Azman Abdullah, delivering the unanimous decision of a three-member bench, said the panel agreed with the concurrent findings made by the trial judge and the High Court on appeal.

“The conviction is safe as there is no appealable error,” said Azman, who sat with Justices Noorin Badaruddin and Radzi Abdul Hamid.

However, the bench allowed Sharwandy Sollahudin’s appeal on sentence, reducing the jail term imposed on him from 78 months to 12.

“We have considered the submissions made by his counsel that he will lose his job and pension,” he said.

On the first count, Sharwandy was convicted of keeping 24 mature pangolins without a permit. The second count involved possession of 13 immature pangolins.

On the third count, he was found guilty of keeping 44 female pangolins, while the fourth count related to keeping all 81 mammals in a manner that caused them unnecessary pain and suffering.

The offences were committed at his residence in Taman Teratai, Alor Setar, in Kedah, at about 12.35pm on Sept 18, 2018.

Sharwandy’s arrest came about following a tip from the public to the wildlife and national parks department (Perhilitan). His motives for keeping the pangolins were never made known.

The sessions court sentenced him to 24 months jail for the first count, for the second and third counts, a total of 78 months. He received an additional sentence of nine months for the fourth.

However, the trial judge ordered the accused to serve only 78 months and that he was to begin his jail term forthwith.

The High Court then allowed a stay of execution after Sharwandy arranged for RM30,000 bail pending the outcome of his appeal on conviction and sentence, which was later dismissed.

Today, the Court of Appeal ordered that he be jailed for 12 months for the first three offences, and another nine months for the fourth, and for all terms to run concurrently.

Deputy public prosecutor Noor Farhana Adham had urged the court to maintain the sentence imposed by the trial judge.

She said the accused was lucky to have been charged under the law before it was amended in 2023 to increase the imprisonment term from 10 to 15 years.

Lawyers G Ravishankar and Nizam Adzha Zaidi represented Sharwandy.