Plantation driver to hang for murders of Indonesian women in Daro
SIBU: The High Court here yesterday sentenced to death an oil palm plantation van driver after he was found guilty of murdering two Indonesian women in Daro two years ago.
Ahmad Robin, 33, was charged under Section 302 of the Penal Code for the murders of Pandang Sarang and Muli Laha on Feb 11, 2022.
The Section carries the death penalty or up to 40 years in prison, and if not sentenced to death, provides for a minimum 12 strokes of the ‘rotan’ (cane).
High Court Judge Wong Siong Tung also sentenced Ahmad to 15 years in prison and six strokes of the ‘rotan’ for voluntarily causing grievous hurt with a dangerous weapon on a third woman named Tene.
The charge was framed under Section 326 of the Penal Code, which provides for a maximum 20 years in prison, a fine, or caning upon conviction.
In passing the sentence, Wong found the offences committed against Pandang Sarang and Muli Laha, as well as Tene to be premeditated and unprovoked.
“These victims came from Indonesia to earn their livelihood for themselves and the family through hard work in the oil palm plantation.
“They suffered brutal and savage attacks at the hands of the accused after which their bodies were thrown into the river by the accused.
“The deaths of Pandang and Muli had undoubtedly caused immeasurable suffering to the families back in their own country.
“The accused exhibited clear intent to kill all three victims and succeeding in the case of Pandang and Muli, in order to rob them their meagre possessions and their hard-earned wages,” said Wong.
According to the first charge, Ahmad murdered Pandang at around 11am at an oil palm plantation in Daro on Feb 11, 2022.
The second charge stated he murdered Muli at another oil palm plantation in Daro at around 11pm the same day.
Ahmad was arrested at Jalan Sentral Daro around 3.30pm on Feb 12, 2022.
The two women’s bodies were discovered at RC Dermaga, Sungai Samong in Daro on Feb 12 and Feb 14, 2022 respectively. Tene survived the attack. On June 13, 2023, the court ruled the prosecution had presented sufficient evidence and established a prima facie case against Ahmad on all three charges.
In his defence, Ahmad, who was the only defence witness called, claimed there were two other men responsible for Pandang and Muli’s murders, as well as Tene’s assault.
He claimed that the two men, one of whom was a ‘Samad’, forced him and the victims into his car at the Lassa Gate, where ‘Samad’ threatened him with a knife.
Ahmad also alleged that ‘Samad’ later attacked Pandang with a stone and a car jack after a struggle.
After listening to Ahmad’s testimony, Wong said he found the allegations implausible and also questioned the existence of ‘Samad’ and the other man.
“This court finds no credibility and does not believe the truth in the accused’s claim regarding the existence of ‘Samad’ and another male individual whom he alleged were the assailants in the assault of Pandang, Muli, and Tene in his defence.
“Consequently, the accused has failed to cast any reasonable doubt on his guilt for the murders of Pandang and Muli and for voluntarily causing grievous hurt to Tene by using dangerous weapons or means as charged,” he said.
In mitigation, defence counsel Ben Lau called on the court to impose the minimum sentence of 30 years in prison for each murder offence and minimum imprisonment term for causing voluntarily causing grievous hurt to Tene, with minimal caning.
Lau also appealed for Ahmad’s jail sentences to run concurrently from the date of his arrest.
He said with the abolishment of the mandatory death penalty, capital punishment should only be imposed when a murder offence was committed in very decrepit and gruesome circumstances, meticulously intentioned and planned, and if the convict was highly likely to offend again to justify his total removal from associating with other persons even in prison.
Thus, the motive for the killing must be extremely heinous to cause a deep sense of abhorrence and condemnation that such an offender would not qualify to live.
“He must be a threat to society so much so that society would without thinking twice approve of his elimination from planet earth.
“It is respectfully submitted that the case at hand does not come close to touching upon the circumstances required to maintain the death sentence against the accused.
“There is a survivor, Tene, who was attacked first in the morning before the first deceased was attacked an hour later, and the second was attacked at night time. It shows that the motive of the accused was to rob, but not to kill anyone – or else, Tene would have died.
“There is no evidence before the court that the killing of the deceased was planned or execute it in a cold-blooded manner, nor any evidence before the court to suggest that the manner of death was calculated to be especially gruesome (compared, for instance, to a case where torture is inflicted so as to ensure that the victim suffers a slow and especially painful death),” he said.
Lau said the 33-year-old accused, married with two children aged eight and 10, was remorseful for his actions.
“The accused prays that the court would not impose the death penalty upon him so that he could be able to still walk out from prison after his completion of jail sentence so that he could reunite with his family members.”
Meanwhile, Deputy public prosecutor Mark Kenneth Netto said the sentence passed must reflect the seriousness of the crime and the need to deter others.
He submitted that Ahmad murdered two women and caused grievous hurt with a weapon to another, adding the victims were vulnerable foreign workers.
“The murders were premeditated wherein the accused lured the victims out of their plantation on the pretext of ferrying them to the Daro town centre; the murders involved the use of deadly weapons and the injuries inflicted on the victims showed the brutality of the accused.
“Those offences were carried out with extreme ferocity; the victims were also robbed in a cold-hearted fashion and their personal belongings were sold to a goldsmith for the accused’s personal gain,” he said.
Mark said Ahmad covered his tracks with the police and did not cooperate with the enforcement authorities; instead, shifting the blame to two unknown characters during the trial.
He said Ahmad would pose a threat to the public at large if he is released after serving his sentence, thus a deterrent sentence ought to be passed to safeguard the public’s interests.
“The death sentence in this case is crucial in shaping Sarawak into one of the safest states in the country to live, study, and work in.
“In the circumstances of this case, this court ought to pass a death sentence as it reflects the accused’s culpability for what he has done,” he added.