SIBU: The Sessions Court here yesterday sentenced a man to 10 years’ jail and ordered that he be given two strokes of the rotan after finding him guilty of voluntarily causing hurt in a robbery attempt.
Judge Dean Wayne Daly, however, granted Kaswadi Mahrup a stay of execution after he indicated his intention to appeal against the sentence.
Kaswadi, in his 20s, was then released on extended bail.
He was charged under Section 394 of the Penal Code which provides for up to 20 years’ jail and possible fine and whipping.
According to the facts of the case, around 3pm on Feb 2, a 24-year-old woman, Christie Tengku, left a hotel with a friend, Daisy Simon Lhasa, on a motorcycle.
They realised a man was tailing them just when they wanted to make a ‘U’ turn at a traffic light junction in Kpg Nyabor Road.
When they were near the Sarawak House, the man on the bike tried to take a handbag in the basket of Christie’s motorcycle.
In the struggle, the man’s bike rammed into a road-divider and all three of them fell from their machines.
As a result, the man sustained a fractured right leg while Christie suffered hand and facial injuries, and her friend injured her right arm.
A patrolling policeman who saw them arrested the man and seized his motorcycle when told that he had tried to rob the women.