Ling is being escorted by Prisons Department personnel.
KUCHING: A Court of Appeal judge recused himself from hearing the appeal of Ling Hang Tsyr who has been convicted of abetting the murder of her husband, banker Wong Jing Kui.
Judge Ravinthran N Paramaguru did so because it would be a conflict of interest to hear the appeal against the High Court conviction of Ling while at the same time hearing the child custody’s case involving Ling and Wong’s nine-year-old boy.
The appeal hearing is now postponed to Oct 18, this year while the battle for child custody between Ling’s family and Wong’s family would be heard tomorrow (Tuesday) at the Kuching High Court. The plaintiff in the child custody case is Wong’s family.
On Oct 27, 2017 Ling was sentenced to death by hanging after she was found guilty of abetting the killing of her husband six years ago by a Sibu High Court Judge Datuk Norcahaya Arshad.
From then on, Ling was placed on remand in Kuching Prison pending her appeal against conviction.
Back then, Ling was charged together with one Andrew Tiong King Guan under Section 109 and Section 302 of the Penal Code read together with Section 34 of the same Code, which provides for a mandatory death sentence upon conviction.
One of the reasons that the Sibu High Court judge gave for convicting the accused Ling was that the active communication between Ling and Tiong showed that they were more than just friends and customers.
She also said the evidence on the form of SMS at 1.21am was not by the deceased but the accused herself as the unchallenged evidence of primary offender Ling Hoe Ing stated that he reached the deceased house between midnight and 1am.
Ling and Tiong were accused of committing the offence at a house in Ulu Sungai Merah about 1.30am on June 14, 2012.
The principal offender, Ling Hoe Ing, 28 , had been charged and convicted under an alternative charge under Section 304(a) of the Penal Code for culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
Hoe Ing had pleaded guilty to the alternative charge and was sentenced to 16 years in jail on Oct 1, 2013.
After Hoe Ing pleaded guilty, the court gave Tiong and Ling a discharge not amounting to an acquittal on their abetment charge, but the charge was reinstated in February 2015 after the prosecution filed an appeal to the Court of Appeal.
A warrant of arrest was then issued against Tiong after he failed to turn up in court when the charge was reinstated.
Tiong is currently still at large.
The boy is currently staying with Ling’s family in Kuching but the deceased family members are not allowed to visit him, according to lawyer in watching brief for Wong’s family, Christina Teng.
According to the statement by the family members, the police are still looking for Tiong who is a wanted person at Interpol too.
Family members of the deceased have offered RM50,000 reward for those who could provide information leading to the arrest of Tiong.