THE PUTRAJAYA Court of Appeal today upheld the High Court's decision to impose the death penalty on six men convicted of murdering deputy public prosecutor Datuk Anthony Kevin Morais in 2015.
The men are former pathologist Col Dr R Kunaseegaran, 60, money lender S Ravi Chandran, 52; and unemployed R Dinishwaran, 31, AK Thinesh Kumar, 30, M Vishwanath, 33, and S Nimalan, 30.
Justice Datuk Hadhariah Syed Ismail, who led a three-member bench, said the High Court had committed no appealable errors in law and fact to warrant setting aside the convictions.
The other members of the bench were Datuk Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim and Datuk Azmi Ariffin.
On July 10, 2020, the six men were sentenced to death after they were found guilty of killing Morais along Jalan Dutamas Raya Sentul and No. 1, Jalan USJ 1/6D, Subang Jaya, between 7 am and 8 pm on Sept 4, 2015.
They were prosecuted under Section 302 of the Penal Code (PC) read together with Section 34 of the PC, which provides for a mandatory death penalty upon conviction.
Morais, 56, was reported missing on September 4, 2015, and was last seen leaving his apartment at Menara Duta in Kuala Lumpur in a Proton Perdana. His body was found in an oil drum filled with cement at Persiaran Subang Mewah, Subang Jaya, on September 16, 2015.
In his decision, High Court Judge Datuk Azman Abdullah (now Court of Appeal judge) held that all the six men had a common intention to kill Morais.
He said the defence failed to raise any reasonable doubt as to the six men’s involvement in the murder. - The Vibes, March 14, 2024