Robber gets 12 years, two lashes

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KOTA KINABALU: The Sessions Court convicted a 28-year-old local man of armed robbery and sentenced him to 12 years’ jail plus two strokes of the cane.

Judge Ismail Brahim yesterday imposed the sentence on Benji Ali after ruling that the latter’s defence had failed to raise doubt on the prosecution’s case.

The court ordered the custodial sentence to take effect from Benji’s date of arrest on April, 18, 2010, but allowed his application for a stay of execution pending an appeal to the High Court.

Benji was found guilty of robbing one Ng Soon Yong of a car, three Nokia cell phones, 10 wrist watches, two cameras, a hard disk, cash and some jewellery items altogether worth RM150,000, with a machete and a knife at a house in Lorong Iramanis, Jalan Kolombong about 11.30pm on March 4, 2010.

He was convicted under Section 395/397 of the Penal Code which provides for a jail term of up to 20 years and also liable to whipping.

Mitigating for leniency, counsel Arthur Bornie for Benji, told the court that his client’s father is paralysed while his mother is old and they have to look after five other children.

Prosecuting officer Assistant Superintendent Sabrina Jinius, who stood in for deputy public prosecutor Nartiah F. Mirchelle Sambatan, urged for a deterrent sentence to be passed on the accused since the robbery involved an extensive range of personal belongings and property and the family of the victim had been deeply traumatised by the incident.

Jinius also told the court that the car was the only item recovered by the police.

The trial started on April 27, 2011, with the prosecution calling 13 witnesses to testify against the accused and on February 8, this year the accused was ordered to enter his defence.

The accused was the sole witness for the defence.