PUTRAJAYA – The Court of Appeal today upheld the conviction and death sentence for six individuals for the murder of deputy public prosecutor Datuk Anthony Kevin Morais in 2015.
A three-member panel comprising justices Datuk Hadhariah Syed Ismail, Datuk Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim and Datuk Azmi Ariffin delivered the unanimous decision this morning.
The appellate court upheld the high court’s conviction for Col Dr R. Kunaseegaran, 61, S. Ravi Chandaran, 53, R. Dinishwaran, 32, A.K. Thinesh Kumar, 31, M. Vishwanath, 34, and S. Nimalan, 31.
Hadhariah, in reading out the judges’ decision, said the defence raised by all six appellants were an afterthought.
She also described Morais’ murder as highly unusual (luar biasa) compared to other murders, and that it was meticulously planned.
“Considering that the deceased was killed, his car was burned and his personal belongings thrown away, as well as the condition of the deceased’s bodies when he were found… this murder can be said to be the rarest of the rare (kejadian bunuh ini dikategorikan sebagai luar biasa daripada kejadian bunuh yang biasa-biasa).
“We find that the conviction and sentence imposed by the high court on the individuals was correct.
“Therefore, we are of the view that the conviction and death penalty sentence is the appropriate punishment for all the appellants (the six individuals),” she said.
Hadhariah also said that the defence raised by the appellants, where they said that they did not know the deceased and had no motive to kill him, are afterthoughts that did not raise any reasonable doubt against the prosecution’s case at the high court.
Morais, who was 55 years old at the time of his death, went missing on September 4, 2015, and was later found dead in a drum barrel filled with cement in Subang Jaya on September 16 of the same year.
The high court had sentenced the six individuals to death on July 10, 2020, after finding them guilty of Morais’ murder, which occurred along Jalan Dutamas Raya Sentul and No. 1, Jalan USJ 1/6D, Subang Jaya, between 7am and 8pm on September 4, 2015.
Lawyers representing the six appellants were Datuk N. Sivananthan (for Kunaseegaran), Kitson Foong (for Ravi Chandaran), M. Manoharan (for Dinishwaran), Burhanudeen Abdul Wahid (for Thinesh Kumar), Afiffudin Ahmad Hafifi (for Vishwanath) and Amer Hamzah Arshad (for Nimalan).
N. Sivananthan then told reporters that the appellants will be filing their appeal against today’s decision at the Federal Court as soon as possible.
Deputy public prosecutors in the case today were Datuk Mohd Dusuki Mokhtar, Mohd Fairuz Johari and Mohd Fuad Abdul Aziz. – March 14, 2024