A Nigerian man has avoided the death penalty after the Court of Appeal in Malaysia commuted his sentence for the murder of a nurse at Serdang Hospital to 35 years in prison.
Alowonle Oluwajuwon Gilbert, 40, will also receive 12 strokes of the cane. The ruling was delivered by a three-member panel of the Court of Appeal, which dismissed Gilbert's appeal against his murder conviction.
The panel deemed the conviction to be safe and found that no other statutory defences applied to Gilbert. The court also stated that there was no evidence of suppression of evidence by the prosecution. The sentencing will begin from the date of Gilbert's arrest in May 2019. The Court of Appeal determined that Gilbert's death sentence should be commuted to imprisonment based on the circumstances and facts of the case.
They set aside the death penalty and substituted it with a prison term of 35 years, accompanied by twelve strokes of the rotan, a type of cane used for corporal punishment. Gilbert had been found guilty by the High Court in Shah Alam on August 4, 2021, of murdering Siti Kharina Kamarudin in a condominium unit in Cyberjaya.
According to his lawyer, Afifuddin Ahmad Hafifi, Gilbert and the victim were in a romantic relationship and living together. He argued that there was no evidence to suggest premeditation in the murder and that Gilbert's blood found at the crime scene could have resulted from a sudden fight between the couple. Afifuddin further contended that the trial judge could have convicted Gilbert of a lesser charge, such as culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
Deputy public prosecutor P Sarulatha countered that the trial judge did not need to consider other statutory defences since Gilbert had chosen an alibi defence. She also maintained that it was unnecessary to provide the full CCTV recording from the condominium area, as there was no notable activity after the incident. Ultimately, the Court of Appeal upheld the original conviction but modified the sentence, taking into account the amendment to Section 302 of the Penal Code. Gilbert will serve his prison term beginning from the date of his arrest.
Source: Free Malaysia Today
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