By Dorcas Ting
KUCHING, Sept 24: The Federal Court reduced jail time for a 71-year-old hawker found guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, from twelve years to four years.
Yong Kim Nyien, was charged with murdering his 46-year-old Chinese national girlfriend at Miri Airport Road, between 2am and 2.30am, on December 14, 2015.
He was detained on December 14, 2015 and was convicted on a reduced charge under Section 304(a) of the Penal Code by the Miri High Court on November 6, 2017. He was then sentenced to twelve years’ imprisonment on November 10, 2017 with effect from December 14, 2015.
However, the sentenced imposed on the appellant was stayed and he was released on bail of RM20,000 with two sureties.
The appellant and the respondent cross-appealed the High Court sentence before the Court of Appeal on October 16, 2018 and the conviction and sentence imposed by High Court was upheld.
The deceased suffered 40 injuries by the appellant. The actions of the deceased was found to have led the accused to have an inability to exercise self-restraint or to judge the situation with insight and balance. The appellant had said that he could not see clearly as the light was not bright and was only lucky that his blows in the dark hit the deceased, otherwise he would have been hit badly by the deceased and become the victim of a murder instead.
The appellant in his mitigation said that he had spinal surgery to insert a piece of metal in his spine, has Type 2 diabetes, hypertension with chronic renal failure, eye sight problems, chronic kidney disease and suffers from distolic dysfunction with NYHA class I-II heart failure.
The respondent was represented by DPP Dato’ Haji Nik Suhaimi Nik Sulaiman while the appellant was represented by counsel Ranbir Singh Sangha. — DayakDaily
