PUTRAJAYA, Sept 17 — The Court of Appeal has granted leave to a former e-hailing driver to appeal his conviction and RM7,000 fine, or 18 months' imprisonment in default, for attempting to extort RM30,000 from the son of a preacher.
A three-member bench, led by Justice Datuk Mohamed Zaini Mazlan, granted Lam Chang Nam’s leave application on a single legal question to be addressed during the full appeal hearing.
The other panel members were Justices Datuk Noorin Badaruddin and Datuk Mohd Radzi Abdul Hamid.
The court allowed the leave application after both the prosecution and the defence agreed to submit the legal question for determination.
The legal question for consideration is whether the inclusion of Section 511 of the Penal Code in a charge for an offence under Section 385 of the Penal Code — which, in itself, provides for an attempt to commit extortion — renders the charge fatally flawed when the charge also states that extortion was actually committed.
On March 24, 2023, the Petaling Jaya Magistrate’s Court found the accused guilty of attempting to extort RM30,000 from the son of the missing Pastor Raymond Koh, in exchange for securing his father’s release.
The offence took place at a shopping mall in Kelana Jaya, Selangor, at 9.46pm on March 6, 2017.
His appeal against the conviction and sentence was dismissed by the Shah Alam High Court on May 30 this year, prompting him to take his case to the Court of Appeal.
Lam, 39, was charged under Section 385 of the Penal Code, read together with Section 511 of the same Code.
As the case originated from the Magistrate’s Court, he was required by law to obtain leave before pursuing his appeal at the appellate level.
Earlier, during the proceedings, when queried by Justice Noorin, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Ng Siew Wee clarified that Section 511 of the Penal Code, which specifically addresses attempted offences, had been included in the charge because the term "committed extortion" had been used in the charge sheet.
She said the DPP handling the trial in the Magistrate’s Court had failed to amend the charge to accurately reflect "attempt to extort." Instead, Section 511 was added to the charge sheet to cover the element of an attempt.
Previously, on February 8, 2021, the Magistrate’s Court discharged and acquitted the accused of a separate charge of abducting Pastor Koh after the prosecution withdrew the charge. However, the charge of attempted extortion proceeded.
Pastor Koh was abducted by several suspects on February 13, 2017, in broad daylight. He remains missing to this day.
In today’s proceedings, Lam was represented by lawyers M. Manoharan and M. Hariharan.
