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By Dorcas Ting
KUCHING, Sept 20: In a landmark decision today, a mechanic from Sibu has become the first appellant to be spared the gallows in Sarawak under the amended Mandatory Death Penalty Abolition Act 2013, passed last April.
Tony Rambor, 45, from Batang Lassa, has instead been sentenced to 30 years in prison and 12 strokes of the cane for killing an acquaintance.
A panel of three judges, led by Chief Justice Tan Sri Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim, remarked that on February 14, 2022, the Court of Appeal upheld the appellant’s sentence when the mandatory death penalty was still in effect for murder convictions.
Abang Iskandar stated that following the amendment of the law, mandatory death sentences had been abolished, granting the court discretion to impose either the death penalty or imprisonment for a term of 30 to 40 years, coupled with a minimum of 12 strokes of the cane for male offenders.
“After considering the mitigating factors and the facts of the case, we have exercised our discretion to substitute the appellant’s sentence to 30 years in prison and 12 strokes of the cane,” he said.
The other judges on the three-man bench were Datuk Rhozariah Bujah and Datuk Nordin Hassan.
The Court also ordered the appellant to begin serving his prison term from the date of his arrest on June 28, 2017.
Previously, Tony had been found guilty by the Sibu High Court on December 11, 2018 for killing his acquaintance in an unnumbered house in Sibu at about 8pm on June 27, 2017.
As such, the appellant had been charged under Section 302 of the Penal Code, which carried a mandatory death penalty upon conviction.
Based on the facts of the case, in the early morning of June 27, 2017, the appellant and the victim, who were co-workers, gathered with several other friends for a night of revelry and alcohol consumption.
Their activities continued into the night when one of the witnesses overheard the victim telling the appellant, “enti dik nadai duit anang mayuh jakok”, which translates to “if you don’t have money, don’t talk too much”.
Enraged by these words, the appellant struck the victim with a piece of wood before tossing him into a nearby drain.
The incident was witnessed by two individuals who had attempted to assist the victim but were frightened of the appellant and eventually returned home.
The following day, the discovery of the victim’s body, along with the bloodstained piece of wood, led to the apprehension of two witnesses and the appellant by the police.
The prosecution was led by Deputy Public Prosecutor Asmah Musa, while Tony was represented by court-appointed lawyers Abdul Rahman Mohamad Hazmi, Christopher Bada Stanley Nyitar and Nur Azureen Zainudin. — DayakDaily
