Post by : Shakul

Malaysia’s Court of Appeal has upheld the 30-year prison sentence given to a former college lecturer convicted of murder and firing a gun during separate bank robbery incidents in Selangor.

A three-member panel led by Justice Datuk Noorin Badaruddin dismissed the prosecution’s appeal seeking a harsher punishment for the accused, Chai Kong Wee, also known as Chia Kong Wee.

Prosecutors had requested either the death penalty or a longer prison term of 40 years for the murder conviction. They also argued that the sentence for discharging a firearm should be increased and run consecutively instead of concurrently.

The court ruled that the High Court had properly exercised its sentencing discretion and found no reason to interfere with the earlier judgment. The judges said imposing consecutive sentences could have resulted in an excessive punishment.

Chai, 42, had pleaded guilty in August 2025 to killing a 21-year-old security personnel named Muhammad Aiman Hakim Md Zakri during a bank robbery in Puchong, Selangor, in March 2022.

He was also convicted of firing gunshots toward the ceiling during another bank robbery at a business center in Subang Jaya in September 2020.

The High Court sentenced him to 30 years in prison and 12 strokes of the cane for each offence, with both sentences running at the same time from the date of sentencing.

During the hearing, prosecutors described the murder as carefully planned and extremely serious, while the defense argued that the accused was already serving multiple lengthy prison terms in other criminal cases.

#world news #Malaysia #Crime #Courtroom