KUCHING: The Court of Appeal (CA) here yesterday allowed an appeal against the sentence of a robber because the jail penalty was too harsh.
The appellant Muhammad Nadzerie Saifuddin was sentenced to 14 years’ imprisonment and also ordered to be given four strokes of the rotan after he pleaded guilty to robbery about two years ago.
Yesterday, the CA judges Datuk Suriyadi Halim Omar, Datuk Abdul Wahab Patail and Datuk Linton Albert unanimously allowed the appeal by reducing Nadzerie’s sentence from 14 to 10 years’ imprisonment.
But they maintained the whipping penalty.
Nadzerie was jointly charged with Ahmad Barmawi Mohd Mukri under Section 395 of the Penal on March 24, 2009.
They pleaded guilty to the charge when their case was first mentioned in court.
Barmawi was a soldier when the offence was committed.
Subsequently he appealed against the sentence and conviction at a High Court but it was dismissed.
The duo robbed a man known as Chang who was inside a Kelisa Perodua which was parked in front of a house at Taman Riverview on March 15 two years ago.
They took away RM550 cash, identity card and EON ATM card from the victim.
Yesterday, Nadzerie’s defence counsel Shankar Ram submitted that the appellant only played a passive role by waiting at the motorcycle while Barmawi was the one who played the major part in committing the offence.
Nadzerie was only a civilian but pleaded guilty as soon as he possibly could and saved the judicial time, Shankar submitted.
The counsel added that it is not good to have a young man rot in the prison cell as it will not give him a chance to turn over a new leaf.
DPP Noorin Badaruddin and DPP Lailawati Ali appeared for the prosecution.