The appellant (centre) is being escorted out of the courthouse. – Photo by Muhammad Rais Sanusi
KUCHING: The Court of Appeal will deliver its decision on Friday on the appeal filed by Ling Hang Tsyr, who was sentenced to death for the murder of her husband, Wong Jing Kui, a former HSBC branch manager, in Sibu in 2012.
Judge Dato’ Zabariah Mohd Yusof fixed the date after hearing submissions from the counsels of the appellant and the deputy public prosecutor (DPP) for nearly two hours.
The other presiding judges were Dato’ Suraya Othman and Datuk Wira Kamaludin Md Said.
The appellant was represented by counsel Lim Heng Choo and Roger Chin, who told the judges that the prosecution did not have direct evidence to convict her.
Lim also told the Court that culpable homicide did not amount to murder, insisting that the prosecution did not have any evidence to convict his client under Section 302 of the Penal Code for murder.
He also told the judges that “there is completely no motive” for the appellant to kill her husband.
He added that Ling, who was sentenced to death on Oct 28, 2017, did not have any financial gain from killing the deceased, not even the benefit from insurance given that the notice of insurance claim was filed by the deceased’s parents.
To add to that, Chin said the investigating officer had confirmed that the appellant “inherited zero” from the deceased and that the deceased’s mother was the beneficiary of the deceased’s insurance policies.
“The couple was already in the process of divorce even before the murder, why must she kill her husband?” Chin said.
He went on to inform the Court that there is no link between the appellant and the principal offender.
He said he had questioned the principal offender whether he knew her or had communicated with her or if she had given him any instruction, to which all the answers were negative.
DPP Tengku Intan Suraya Tengku Ismail asked why the appellant did not alert the police immediately after the murder took place.
She said the appellant called her uncle half an hour after the murder, instead.
A judge then asked the DPP why the appellant, a mother, would want her son to be in the same room which she knew a murder was going to happen.
Ling and her boyfriend Tiong King Guan were accused of abetting then principal accused, Ling Hoe Ing, in killing Wong at his residence at Jalan Ulu Sg Merah, Sibu at about 1.30am on June 14, 2012.
Hoe Ing owed Tiong RM10,000 at the time.
Both Ling and Tiong faced an amended charge under Section 109 of the Penal Code for abetment, read with Section 302 for murder, which carries a mandatory death sentence on conviction.
Tiong is still at large while Hoe Ing was jailed 16 years after he pleaded guilty on Oct 1, 2013, to an alternative charge of culpable homicide.