Death sentence for Indonesian who killed father-in-law

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TAWAU: The High Court here yesterday sentenced an Indonesian to death for killing his father-in-law with a knife outside an unnumbered house at Block E, Ladang Pompous 2, Cenderawasih, in Lahad Datu two years ago.

Oil palm estate worker Kristianus Sewar, 42, who was found guilty on a charge under Section 302 of the Penal Code, committed the crime at about 5.30pm on July 20, 2011.

The facts of the case revealed that the victim, Suis Gradus, and the accused had lived in the same residential block in the plantation.

In July 2010, the vicitm’s daughter, named Marlia binti Suis, married the accused. However, when their marriage turned sour, Marlia left the accused and returned to live with her parents.

On July 20, 2011, after the victim and his wife (Marlia’s mother) returned from a visit to a clinic in town at about 4.30pm, Marlia’s mother went to their neighbor’s house to watch television while the deceased headed straight home.

At about 5.30pm, while Marlia was in the kitchen cooking dinner, her estranged husband came to the house. The victim, after telling Marlia of having noticed the accused standing in front of the house, then went out to meet the accused.

Curious about the accused’s unannounced visit, Marlia left the kitchen to watch the accused and the victim talking to each other from the living room, and suspecting nothing amiss, she went back to the kitchen to finish preparing their dinner.

A moment later, Marlia heard the victim yelling for help and on rushing to the front door she saw the accused stabbing the victim with a knife.

Marlia’s mother, who also heard the yell, rushed out of the neighbor’s house and saw her husband lying on the ground outside their house with the accused was standing next to him and holding a knife.

When he saw Marlia and her mother staring at him in disbelief, the accused fled the scene and ran towards the palm oil plantation.

Marlia screamed for help and neighbors crowded the area where the victim was lying motionless, fatally wounded in the chest.

The police on being informed about the incident by the estate manager, Suresh, rushed from Lahad Datu station to the scene to investigate.

The body of the victim was later removed and taken to Lahad Datu hospital on the same night for a post-mortem, which confirmed the cause of death as due to ‘stab wounds in the chest’.

The accused surrendered himself to the police on July 25, 2011 and led them to the place where he dumped his jeans, shirt and the knife that he used to stab the deceased. The police, however, only managed to recover the accused’s jeans and shirt while the knife was nowhere to be found.

The court hearing of this case started on May 20, 2013 with the prosecution making their submission on June 23, 2013 and defence submission on July 9, 2013. Nine witnesses were called up to testify by the prosecution.

High Court judge, P. Ravinthran, sat in judgment while and deputy public prosecutor, Hamdan Bin Hamzah led the prosecution.