KOTA KINABALU: A local man who is currently serving seven years in prison plus three strokes of the cane for gang robbery was yesterday jailed for another six years and ordered to be whipped twice for a similar offence.
Sessions Court judge Duncan Sikodol meted out the sentence on Suffian Januid, 29, after he changed his plea of not guilty to one of guilty when the case came up for continuation of the trial.
The court ordered the unrepresented accused to serve the sentence from his date of arrest on Jan 21, this year.
However, Duncan set Nov 1 for the trial of Hanafie Patrick, 21, who still maintained his not guilty plea to the same charge under Section 395 of the Penal Code which carries a jail term of up to 20 years and is also liable to whipping upon conviction.
Hanafie, who is represented by counsel Batholomew Jingulam, is currently released on RM2,000 bail with two local sureties pending disposal of the case.
Suffian and Hanafie are jointly charged with robbing one Bobby Fried Mojuli and robbing a Proton Saga car bearing the number SAB6275B worth RM40,500 belonging to Bobby’s girlfriend Jarina Mohd Jamil by the roadside near Hotel Shangri-La in Tanjung Aru about 11.08pm on Dec 2, 2011.
The prosecution had already called five witnesses to testify against the duo before Suffian had decided to plead guilty to the offence.
The facts of the case stated that Bobby went to fetch his girlfriend who was working at the hotel.
Before he reached the place, he stopped the Proton Saga car by the roadside to answer nature’s call.
Suddenly, a Pordua Viva came and stopped behind the Proton Saga after which a man came out of the car and accused Bobby of disturbing his sibling.
The man tried to go inside the car but Bobby prevented him.
However, another man armed with a machete came out of the Viva.
As a result, the complainant ran away while the suspect drove off the car.
Earlier in mitigation, Suffian pleaded to the court to impose a lenient sentence on him.
Deputy public prosecutor Luke Ressa Balang, however, urged the court to impose a deterrent sentence on grounds that the accused had committed a serious offence.
He pointed out that the victim, in his impact statement, said he was traumatised by the incident.
Luke said that apart from this case, the accused was sentenced to seven years’ jail plus three strokes of the cane for gang robbery and the sentence runs from Suffian’s date of arrest on Jan 11, this year.