Elderly woman ordered by court to defend manslaughter charge

KOTA KINABALU: An elderly woman has been ordered to enter her defence on May 25 this year after being charged with manslaughter of a retired teacher last year.

Sessions Court judge Azreena Aziz fixed the date in the case of Chin Su Ching, 65, yesterday after ruling that the prosecution had established a prima facie case against the accused.

Chin was accused of causing the death of her friend, Ngui Lim Kiau, 64, at a house in Kepayan Ridge near here at 3pm on September 23, 2016.

She was charged under Section 304(a) of the Penal Code, which carries a jail term of up to 30 years and a fine, upon conviction.

The prosecution, led by deputy public prosecutor Husna Abdul Halim, had called 11 witnesses during trial at the prosecution stage.

Chin was represented by counsel Idris Ibrahim.

In the same court, 16 foreigners, including a woman, were jailed between four and five months for illegal entry into the State.

Azreena imposed the sentence on the accused persons, aged between 20 and 52 years old, after they all pleaded guilty as charged under Section 6(1)(c) of the Immigration Act 1959/63.

The indictment carries a maximum fine of RM10,000 or a jail term of up to five years or both and also liable to whipping of not more than six strokes of the cane, upon conviction.

Twelve of the men were also ordered to be whipped once while the others were spared due to their gender and age.

In mitigation, the accused persons pleaded for a lenient sentence as they have families to support and wanted to be deported back to their home country as soon as possible.

The court also ordered for the accused persons to be referred to the Immigration Department for their biometric data to be recorded before being deported.