KOTA KINABALU (Nov 28): The High Court today sentenced a businessman charged with killing a 53-year-old man to 35 years in jail and 12 strokes of whipping.
Judge Amelati Parnell meted out the ruling against Hobalan A/L N. Vello at the end of the defence case.
“Conclusively, and after having considered and evaluated all of the evidence presented by th Prosecution and the accused, this Court found that the accused had not, by his defence, raised any reasonable doubt on the prosecution’s case. That being the case, I found that the charge of murder has been made out and further found the accused guilty of the offence. I therefore entered a conviction against the accused of the said charge,” she said.
“In the circumstances, this court exercised the discretion and imposed the alternative punishment under Section 302 of the Penal Code and sentenced the accused to an imprisonment term of 35 years to commence from today and 12 strokes of whipping,” she added.
She also revoked the bail previously granted and for the sum deposited in court to be refunded.
The prosecution called 26 witnesses, while the defence called six witnesses including the accused.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Rustam Sanip prosecuted.
Hobalan had pleaded not guilty to murder Albert @ Recquel A Agang outside a seafood restaurant in Beaufort between 11.30pm on December 18, 2020 and 12.05am on December 19, 2020.
