Seven more inmates succeed in substituting death sentences
KOTA KINABALU: Seven more inmates succeeded in their attempts to substitute their death sentences with a jail sentence after the Federal Court here on Tuesday allowed their applications under the Revision of Sentence of Death and Imprisonment for Natural Life (Temporary Jurisdiction of the Federal Court) Act 2023.
Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, who sat together with Chief Justice of Sabah and Sarawak Tan Sri Datuk Abdul Rahman Sebli and Federal Court Justice Datuk Abu Bakar Jais, unanimously granted the applications and changed the capital punishments to custodial sentences of between 30 to 35 years.
The applicants were Yew Wui Lam, 43, Muhammad Halid Mappa, 62, Safruddin Nasir, 37, Abdul Samid Edward, 41, Mohd Faris Mohd Johan, 60, Mohammad Din Munap, 58, and Edmon John, 55.
Yew, Muhammad Halid, Safruddin and Abdul Samid, who were convicted on separate murder charges, had their death penalties substituted with 35 years’ imprisonment counted from their respective date of arrests.
The court also ordered them to be given 12 strokes of the cane each.
Mohd Faris, Mohammad Din and Edmon, who had drug trafficking convictions, managed to get 30 years’ jail as substitution to their original punishment which was death penalty.
However, due to these three applicants’ age, they were spared from whipping punishment.
The backgrounds of the murder cases are as follows:
1. Yew was found guilty of murdering his father aged 71 and mother aged 62 using a knife in a house at an estate in Sandakan on Sept 13, 2011. His date of arrest was on the incident day.
2. Muhammad Halid had been convicted of murdering his 29-year-old wife at Kampung Langkabang in Tongod on May 10, 2009. He was arrested on May 11, 2009.
3. Safruddin was found guilty of murdering an 18-year-old youth in front of a house at a residential area in Manggatal.
4. Abdul Samid was found guilty of murdering a man aged 26 at a bus stop of Kampung Kurnia Jaya in Tawau on Oct 11, 2008.
For the drug trafficking cases, the three applicants namely Mohd Faris, Mohammad Din and Edmon were found guilty of trafficking in 73.76 grams, 74.48 grams and 141.16 grams of syabu respectively between 2010 and 2014.
Faizal Hisham Mohd Nasir, 37, had his life imprisonment for an offence under Section 4 of the Firearms Act (Increased Penalties) 1971 substituted with 30 years’ jail from the date of his arrest on Sept 9, 2015.
Meanwhile, Rudy Jupri, 38, and Dourin Murah, 56, failed in their applications to quash their death sentences. The court maintained their convictions and death sentences for separate murder charges.
Rudy was found guilty of murdering two sisters aged six and 17 at an unnumbered house in a village in Beluran on April 15, 2009.
As for Dourin, he was found guilty of murdering a 52-yearold man at a rubber plantation in Kampung Tenggulun Jaya in Sook, Keningau on July 12, 2008.
Counsel Zaleha Mohd Yusuf Pan represented Yew and Muhammad Halid. Counsel Shahlan Jufri represented Safruddin, Mohd Faris and Dourin while counsel Edward Paul acted for Rudy and Edmon.
Counsels Jhasarry P Kang, David Tan and Jamadi Saleh defended Abdul Samid, Mohammad Din and Faizal respectively.
On Feb 5, nine inmates succeeded in their applications to set aside their death penalties and life imprisonment while one inmate failed in his application and had his murder conviction and death sentence maintained.