Malaysian court upholds conviction against former pathologist, 5 others over murder of prosecutor Kevin Morais

PUTRAJAYA: The Malaysian Court of Appeal on Thursday (Mar 14) upheld the death sentence of six men convicted of murdering Deputy Public Prosecutor Anthony Kevin Morais nine years ago.

They are former pathologist Colonel Dr R Kunaseegaran, 61; money lender S Ravi Chandran, 53; and four other unemployed men, R Dinishwaran, 32; A K Thinesh Kumar, 31; M Vishwanath, 34; and S Nimalan, 31.

A three-judge panel consisting of Judge Hadhariah Syed Ismail, Judge Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim and Judge Azmi Ariffin unanimously dismissed the appeal filed by the six men to set aside the decision of the High Coirt on July 10, 2020, which convicted and sentenced them to death for the murder.

In the court’s decision, Judge Hadhariah said after examining all the grounds of judgement by the High Court judge and the evidence presented in court, the Court of Appeal found that the High Court judge did not err in terms of law and facts.

“The conviction imposed (against the six men) by the High Court was correct,” she said.

Judge Hadhariah said that Morais’ murder was carefully planned and the condition of the body when it was found showed the cruelty of all the accused.

“If killing the victim was not enough, the deceased’s car was also burned and his personal belongings were disposed of.

“This murder incident is categorised as extraordinary from an ordinary murder incident. Therefore, in our opinion, the punishment that commensurate (with) the offence committed is hang to death,” said Judge Hadhariah.

She also said that when Morais’ body was found, it was fully clothed (but) without shoes and the hands tied behind his back with a tie.

“There are seven pressure marks or compression on the chest, shoulders and back of the body, which is placed in a sack