Sibu High Court refers murder case of bank manager back to Sessions Court

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SIBU: The High Court has ordered for the murder case of bank manager Stephen Wong to be remitted to Sessions Court.

Both respondents Ling Hang Tsyr, 33, and her male friend Tiong King Guan, 28, have been charged under Section 304(a) of the Penal Code, and read with Section 109 of the Penal Code that may lead to up to 30 years in jail.

Last month, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Mirza Mohd applied to the Sessions Court to have the charge against Ling and Tiong amended to be punishable under Section 302 of the same code, read together with Section 109, which provides for a mandatory death sentence.

The applied amended charge was the same as that faced by the accused in High Court, which it had dismissed on Feb 26, and there was appeal against the decision.

In view of this, the Sessions Court quashed the amended charge and ordered both accused to be discharged not amounting to acquittal.

Yesterday, High Court Judge Lee Heng Cheong ruled that the Attorney General had the absolute discretion to institute, conduct or discontinue any proceeding for an offence, other than those before a Syariah Court, a Native Court or a Court-Martial.

However, the prosecution had failed to appeal against the court order to quash the charge under Section 302 of the Penal Code.

“This court finds that the prosecution is thus stopped from re-amending the present charge in the Sessions Court back to a charge under Section 302 of the Penal Code, read together with Sections 109 and 34 of the same code, and from transmitting this case from the Sessions Court to the High Court.

“It is trite that a court order remains valid and subsisting until set aside and thus, all parties including this court is bound by the said court order.

“This court further finds that the cases cited and relied upon by the applicant, can be distinguished in that in those cited cases, there was no existing High Court order unlike in the present case.

“This court, however, finds that the Sessions Court’s decision in striking out the prosecution’s
case instead of proceeding to hear the case under Section 304(a) of the Penal Code, read with Section 109 of the same code, to be perverse, wrong and without basis,” he pointed out.

The court fixed Nov 5 for the case to be brought up for further mention at Sessions Court.

It is believed that the two accused committed the offence on June 14, 2012, at about 1.30am at a house in Ulu Sungai Merah, by way of conspiracy abetted Ling Hoe Ing, 24, in the commission of culpable homicide not amounting to murder of Wong.

Principal offender, Hoe Ing had been charged and convicted under alternative charge under Section 304(a) of the Penal Code for culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

He pleaded guilty to the alternative charge and was sentenced to 16 years’ jail on Oct 1 last year.

Tiong was represented by Orlando Chua, and Hang Tsyr by Anthony Tai, Roger Chin and Sempurai Petrus.