Five to hang for man’s murder after court rejected ‘robbery tale’

KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court here yesterday sentenced five men including two armed forces personnel to death after finding them guilty of murdering a man in an incident at a snooker club last year.

Judicial Commissioner Datuk Mohamad Shariff Abu Samah meted out the sentence on armed forces personnel Mohamad Hairul Abdullah, 35, and Lawrence Masing, 33, security guard M. Yogesvaran, 24, shop assistant Zaidi Zainal, 32, as well as goldsmith shop supervisor Chong Kai Weng, 33, after finding the defence had failed to raise reasonable doubts against the prosecution.

The five men were accused of causing the death of unemployed, Mohd Yusof Abd Khalib, 26, at VClub Snooker at No. 25&27 Jalan Intan Baiduri 10D, Taman Intan Baiduri, Selayang near here between 8.30pm to 11pm on May 1 2016.

Mohamad Shariff, in his 245page judgement said the story that the accused wanted to catch a robber was a mere fiction and the court viewed the story as a doubtful fantasy which did not affect the prosecution of the case.

“The overall picture seen at the end of the case was that the second to the fifth accused had indeed assaulted the deceased by kicking and stomping him repeatedly and violently.

“The first accused who was also at the crime scene deliberately allowed the attack to take place whereby the serious injuries would usually cause death. They later brought the deceased in a car and left his wife alone outside the snooker club,” he said.

He said in the entire trial, the court did not see the presence of other people except the five accused.

“The actions of the five accused had exceeded noble human values by taking the law in their own hands. “Even if the deceased was a robber, the alternative action was to bring him to justice and not by taking the action of a hungry tiger mauling its victim,” he said.

He said he did not believe the defence presented by all the accused that they wanted to catch the robber for the police.

The five accused were charged under Section 302 of the Penal Code read together with Section 34 of the same code which carries the mandatory death sentence upon conviction.

After the decision was announced, one of the family members of the accused broke down.

Prosecution was conducted by deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Nazneen Zulkifli while all the accused were represented by counsel M. Jagesh.

A total of 16 prosecution witnesses and eight defence witnesses including the five accused were called to testify at the trial of the case.