SIBU: A timber camp worker was yesterday sentenced to death by the High Court here for murdering his wife.
Serberry Selih Kaya was convicted under Section 302 of the Penal Code which provides for a mandatory death sentence upon conviction.
He was charged with killing Jara Jimbat at the corridor of their second-floor unit of a flat in Sibu Jaya between 1pm and 1.30pm on July 4, 2014.
In her judgment, High Court Judge Supang Lian said the prosecution had proven the case beyond reasonable doubt and thus ordered his conviction.
She found him guilty of the charge and sentenced him to death by hanging.
Earlier, it was reported that the accused turned himself in at the Sibu Jaya police station shortly after he murdered his 52-year-old wife out of jealousy.
Jealousy was aroused in the accused who worked as a heavy machinery operator in Kapit when his wife only returned to their flat in Sibu Jaya once in a while from Julau where she worked as a tailor.
Before the ill-fated incident, the accused grabbed his wife’s hand phone in an attempt to check her communication which led to a fight.
The accused allegedly stepped on his wife and slashed her neck with a knife.
Bleeding profusely, his wife attempted to flee but collapsed at the lobby of the flat and died on the spot.
She succumbed to the wounds on her neck.
According to neighbours, the couple often quarrelled.
When the quarrel became unusual on that day, they called the police who arrived to see the couple quarrelling and tried to console them.
After the couple appeared to relent, the men in blue left.
When the police station received another call from the neighbours, three policemen rushed to the flat and saw Jara lying in a pool of blood at the lobby.
The couple was married in 2012 and they have a three-year-old son.