Sarawakian gets death for murder in Singapore

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Jabing Kho – Singapore Police Force photo

SINGAPORE: Sarawakian Jabing Kho was again sentenced to death yesterday by the Singapore Court of Appeal – the nation’s apex court – for the 2008 murder of a construction worker.

He was first sentenced to death in 2010, but when laws were revised in 2013 making the death penalty mandatory for only the most serious murder cases, Jabing applied for re-sentencing and was granted a life sentence.

Prosecutors then appealed against the High Court decision to sentence him to life in prison, following changes to the law giving judges more sentencing discretion for murder and drug trafficking offences.

They said Jabing had beaten his victim to death in a “most brutal and vicious fashion” with a piece of wood.

‘Today’ reported yesterday that three of the five judges ruled in favour of the death sentence for the 30-year-old.

Judge Chao Hick Tin, Judge Andrew Phang and Justice Chan Seng Onn said Jabing, who hit Chinese national Cao Ruyin’s head with severe force at least three times, had exhibited a “blatant disregard for human life”.

“We have absolutely no doubt that when the respondent landed the three blows on the head of the deceased, he did not care at all whether the blows would kill the latter,” they wrote in their judgement.

The other two judges in the panel – Justices Lee Seiu Kin and Woo Bih Li – found that there was insufficient evidence to establish beyond reasonable doubt that Jabing had hit his victim with such force as to cause most of the fractures in his skull.

Jabing’s lawyers said they will look into filing a petition for the President’s clemency.

In February 2008, Jabing robbed Cao with accomplice Galing Kujat, 28, a fellow Sarawakian.

Galing was originally sentenced to death but the Court of Appeal found him not guilty of murder in 2011, saying he did not share Jabing’s intention to kill.

The court set aside Galing’s murder conviction and convicted him of a lesser charge of robbery with hurt.

He was later sentenced by the High Court to 18 and a half years in jail and 19 strokes of the rotan.