shall be guilty of an offence and shall on conviction be punished with—
- (i) imprisonment for a term which may extend to life imprisonment; and
- (ii) a fine not exceeding $1 million.
(2) Nothing in subsection (1) shall apply in respect of any act done by an authorised officer, a national inspector or an international inspector under the authority of this Act or any regulation made thereunder or any other written law.
(3) In proceedings for an offence under subsection (1) (a), (c), (d), (e) or (g) relating to an object, it is a defence for the accused to prove that—
- (a) he neither knew nor suspected nor had reason to suspect that the object was a chemical weapon or riot control agent, as the case may be; or
- (b) as soon as reasonably practicable after he first knew or suspected it to be a chemical weapon or riot control agent, as the case may be, he took all reasonable steps to inform an authorised officer of his knowledge or suspicion.
(4) Nothing in subsection (3) shall prejudice any defence which is open to a person charged with an offence under this section to raise apart from those subsections.
Licence for use, etc., of scheduled chemical or discrete organic chemical
9.—(1) No person shall use, develop, produce, acquire, stockpile, retain or transfer a Schedule 1 chemical for a permitted purpose except under and in accordance with the conditions of a licence granted by the Director.
(2) No person shall—
- (a) produce, process or consume a Schedule 2 chemical for a permitted purpose; or
- (b) produce a Schedule 3 chemical for a permitted purpose, except under and in accordance with the conditions of a licence granted by the Director.
