PUTRAJAYA, April 30 — A former construction company manager who murdered his Indonesian girlfriend by stabbing her 28 times six years ago escaped the gallows after the Court of Appeal commuted the death sentence to 30 years in jail and 12 strokes of the rotan today.
A three-member panel of judges chaired by Justice Datuk Hadhariah Syed Ismail, Datuk Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim, and Datuk Azmi Ariffin unanimously replaced the death sentence by the Shah Alam High Court on Sobri Abdul Wahab with the jail term.
Hadhariah said the Shah Alam High Court did not err in its decision to convict the 46-year-old, and there was no merit in the accused’s appeal and plea of insanity at the time of the incident.
“Such a claim could not be proven. Therefore, the conviction is upheld, but the death sentence is replaced with a jail term,” she said.
Hadhariah ordered Sobri to serve the jail sentence from the date of his arrest on March 10, 2018.
On December 31, 2021, the Shah Alam High Court sentenced the accused to death after finding him guilty after he was charged with murdering school canteen helper Gusnima, 38, at her rented apartment in Section U8, Bukit Jelutong, Shah Alam, between 6pm and 8pm on March 10, 2018.
The victim, from Medan, Indonesia, was found dead with 14 stabs to her neck, five to the body, four in the stomach, three in the chest, and two to the skull.
Earlier, lawyer K.A Ramu, representing Sobri, pleaded that his client was insane and was not under medication at the time of the incident, but Deputy Public Prosecutor Ng Siew Wee objected to the plea, claiming the accused was not medically insane because he behaved normally.
During the proceeding, the accused was also represented by Khairul Naim Rafidi and Farida Mohammad.
Following the amendment to Section 302 of the Penal Code, the court can sentence an accused to not less than 30 years and not more than 40 years if the death penalty is not imposed, and a male convict shall also be punished with whipping of not less 12 strokes of the rotan.
— Bernama
