Her lawyer, Hisyam Teh Poh Teik (above, left),
submitted that there was duplicity of the charge as the public
prosecutor had included two distinct offences in the charge, namely
reckless driving and driving in a dangerous manner. "This is erroneous. Only one offence is allowed in law to be framed in the charge," he added.
Hisyam
was submitted in Sam's appeal against a High Court's decision which
convicted her of reckless driving and sentenced her to six years in jail
and a fine. The counsel argued that his client had been prejudiced as there was
"a failure of justice" because she had been convicted of a charge not
recognised in law.
"The High Court judge convicted Sam for
‘reckless or dangerous driving’. The appellant (Sam) did not get what
the law says she should get," he said before a three-member bench
comprising judges Hadhariah Syed Ismail, Hashim Hamzah and Azman
Abdullah.
Sam (above, right), 27, was initially acquitted
and discharged without being called to enter her defence by the Johor
Bahru Magistrate's Court on Nov 18, 2019, on a charge of reckless
driving that caused the death of the teenagers who were riding on
modified bicycles, commonly known as basikal lajak.
Sam’s ordeal
The eight teenagers killed in the incident were Mohamad Azrie Danish
Zulkefli, 14; Muhamad Shahrul Izzwan Azzuraimie, 14; Muhammad Firdauz
Danish Mohd Azhar, 16; Fauzan Halmijan, 13; Mohamad Azhar Amir, 16;
Muhammad Harith Iskandar Abdullah, 14; Muhammad Shahrul Nizam Marudin,
14 and Haizad Kasrin, 16.
She was charged with committing the
offence at Jalan Lingkaran Dalam, Johor Bahru, Johor at 3.20am on Feb
18, 2017. Sam was 22 years old at the time of the incident. On Feb
18, 2021, High Court judge Shahnaz Sulaiman allowed the prosecution's
appeal and remitted the case back to the Magistrate's Court for Sam to
enter her defence on the reckless driving charge.
On Oct 10, 2021,
the Magistrate's Court discharged and acquitted Sam at the end of the
defence case. The prosecution appealed to the High Court. On April
13 last year, High Court judge Abu Bakar Katar allowed the
prosecution's appeal and convicted Sam of reckless driving. Sam was
sentenced to six years in jail and an RM6,000 fine.
The woman then
appealed to the Court of Appeal and on April 18 last year, the
appellate court allowed her application to stay the execution of the
jail sentence and fine and released her on bail of RM10,000 in one
surety pending the hearing of her appeal.
In today's appeal
hearing, Hisyam also argued that in the Magistrate's Court, the
prosecution's case was that of reckless driving, but when the case went
up before the first High Court judge, the prosecution's stand changed to
dangerous driving.
Meanwhile, another of Sam’s counsel,
Harvinderjit Singh submitted that what happened on that day was an
"emergency", saying that the situation was created by the victims and
not Sam. The victims were riding on modified bicycles at 3am
illegally, he said, adding that the finding of prima facie against Sam
by the first High Court was wrong.
The court fixed April 11 to
resume hearing after deputy public prosecutor Tengku Amir Zaki Tengku
Abdul Rahman said he would take two hours to submit.
Red Cicak : I was driving on NSE on Sunday evening around buka puasa time. There were some rempits riding like superman weaving in between the lanes on NSE where cars are driving at 100 to 130km/h. If somebody hits them, whose fault is it?
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