SIBU: A youth escaped the gallows when the High Court here set him free from a murder charge under Section 302 of the Penal Code, which carries the death-by-hanging mandatory sentence on conviction.Peter Ling, 22, walked out smiling after Judicial Commissioner Yew Jen Kie acquitted him without his defence being called after the prosecution’s case on Tuesday.
One of his defence counsels, Orlando Chua, said he was pleased with the outcome of the case.
The other defence counsel was Augustine Liom.
In her judgment, Yew said the prosecution had failed to prove beyond reasonable doubts from the nine witnesses in court that Ling had killed Ngu Leh Khoon, who died of multiple slashes in a mass attack inside a pub at Brooke Drive in 2006.
Four police officers, four pub workers and Ngu’s father testified when the murder trial began last year end.
Prosecuting officer Musli Abdul Hamid said in the charge that Ling killed Ngu on June 18 in the pub at 4am.
According to the newspaper reports in 2006, Ngu was watching World Cup there with others when a group of men armed with spurs stormed in.
The 37-year-old man sustained cuts on his neck, shoulders and stomach.
He bled profusely and died shortly. His car outside the pub was smashed.
According to the newspapers, Ngu had just finished serving his jail sentence merely a month before his death.
After his release, he had once been arrested to help the police in an investigation of a car theft.
After the murder, the police arrived to find his body near the main door of the pub.
According to the witnesses, there was a commotion before the murder.
Meanwhile, after the judgment on Tuesday evening, the eighth witness – a worker in the pub where Ngu was killed – was arrested by the police as he came out of the court room.
The police suspected that the 26-year-old man had given false evidence in the hearing earlier that afternoon.
He was remanded yesterday for two days to help in the investigation of the allegation.
The police applied for a four-day remand, but were allowed two days. They will produce him in court again tomorrow.