PUTRAJAYA, Jan 19 — A rubber tapper escaped the gallows after the Court of Appeal commuted his death sentence for the murder of two elderly men to a jail term.
A three-member bench led by Datuk Azman Abdullah ordered Muhammad Huzairi Razali, 41, to serve a 30-year prison sentence for each of the two charges.
The bench, which also comprised Court of Appeal judge Datuk Mohd Radzi Abdul Hamid and High Court judge Datuk Amarjeet Singh, also ordered the accused to be given 24 strokes of the cane.
Justice Azman, who delivered the court’s decision, said there was no error by the High Court in rejecting his defence of unsoundness of mind and that his conviction was safe.
However, the court partly allowed Huzairi’s appeal against the sentence, noting that it was empowered to commute the death sentence to imprisonment.
Accordingly, he said the court sentenced the accused to 30 years’ imprisonment and 12 strokes of the cane for each charge.
Justice Azman ordered the prison sentence to be served consecutively as the offences involved two victims and were committed at different locations.
On the first charge, Huzairi was accused of murdering Ku Cheng Liong @ Ku Sot, 71, at a coffee shop on Jalan Abdullah, Pekan Buloh Kasap, Segamat, Johor, at 5.50pm on July 12, 2019.
He was also charged with murdering Ng Wan Hong, 67, at a durian stall on Jalan Ibrahim, Pekan Buloh Kasap, at 6.03pm the same day.
On January 27, 2024, the High Court convicted him on both charges and sentenced him to death.
According to the case facts, the accused first attacked Ku with a parang at the coffee shop, killing him instantly. He then went to the durian stall, where he stabbed Ng in the chest during a struggle. Ng succumbed to his injuries at the Buloh Kasap Health Clinic.
In his defence, Huzairi claimed he could not remember the incidents and said he was suffering from a psychiatric illness.
At the Court of Appeal today, lawyer Abraham Mathew appeared for the accused while Deputy Public Prosecutor Siti Rafidah Zainuddin appeared for the prosecution.
