SIXTEEN years ago, Yunani Abdul Hamid was given a discharge not amounting to an acquittal for drug trafficking.

Last November, the 33-year-old was jailed for nine years and ordered to be caned six times for the offence. On Tuesday, he was acquitted of the charge.

His was an unprecedented case that spanned 16 years.

In 1992, Yunani was giving a lift on his motorcycle to Abdul Aziz Idros after work. Both men were lashers at the then Port of Singapore Authority container area.

They fled after a guard stopped the duo at the gate, and found nearly a kg of cannabis in a backpack carried by Abdul Aziz.

While his colleague went into hiding, Yunani turned himself in, claiming at the time that the drugs were not his.

When Abdul Aziz, 40, was eventually caught in April last year, he pleaded guilty to drug traficking and was sentenced to 12 years? jail and eight strokes of the cane. He also implicated Yunani and the 33-year-old also pleaded guilty last November.

He appealed against the sentence.

As Judge of Appeal V.K. Rajah had 'serious doubts' about Yunani's guilt because of the long lapse in prosecution, the High Court judge quashed Yunani's conviction last month and ordered a re-trial.

During the seven-day trial before District Judge Jasvender Kaur, Abdul Aziz denied his guilt.

Cross-examined by Yunani's lawyer, Mr Abraham Vergis, Abdul Aziz claimed that he had pleaded guilty because he lacked money to fight the case and also because the prosecution had reduced the charge from a capital offence to one which carried a maximum jail term of 20 years with 15 strokes of the cane.

He also said his lawyer told him that he would receive a lenient sentence if he was to testify against Yunani.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Lim Tse Haw then asked the judge to impeach Abdul Aziz's testimony.

Criticising prosecutors for placing too much emphasis on police statements, DJ Kaur said that CNB investigation officer John Cheong had not taken any steps to verify what Yunani said in his statement.

Calling it 'very unsatisfactory', she noted that IO Cheong did carry out indepenent checks to verify Yunani's version.