Murderer fails in bid to quash death sentence

KOTA KINABALU: A 52-year-old Filipino failed in his bid to quash his death sentence at the Court of Appeal here on Monday for murdering an acquaintance in Lahad Datu six years ago.

A three-member panel chaired by Justice Datuk Supang Lian, who sat together with Justices Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah and Datuk Wong Kian Kheong, unanimously dismissed the appeal by Robin Radjaini Saih @ Amjan Patta and affirmed his death penalty imposed by the High Court three years ago.

On April 28, 2021, the Tawau High Court had sentenced the appellant to death after finding him guilty of killing Fazrin Ibrahim, 30, with a machete at an entrance leading to a residential area in Lahad Datu on April 24, 2018.

The appellant had been convicted of the offence under Section 302 of the Penal Code.

Robin, who was represented by counsel Darmin Achok, had appealed to set aside the capital punishment.

After perusing the record of appeal, the judges were satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the High Court judge had rightly convicted the appellant for murder under Section 302 of the Penal Code.

The Court of Appeal also jailed a private taxi driver for a total of 30 years for syabu trafficking.

Supang, Collin and Wong unanimously passed the sentence on Galam Akang, 68, and ordered him to serve it from the date of his arrest.

Galam, who was represented by government-assigned counsel Datuk Ram Singh, had withdrawn his appeal against sentence after his representation to the deputy public prosecutor’s office was accepted.

The accused had sent the representation letter to the office on March 1.

On December 18, 2020, the Tawau High Court sentenced Galam to death by hanging after finding him guilty of the offence.

The charge stated that he had trafficked in 189.8 grams of syabu at a juncture of a school at Km 4 Jalan Lahad Datu on January 9, 2018.

The offence was under Section 39B (1) (a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, punishable under Section 39B (2) of the same Act.