Justice Ahmad Kamal Shahid said Myanmar national Sua Lay, 40, and Gurpreet Singh, 30, an Indian citizen, were responsible for taking the life of Aiman Nosri, 27.
“As foreign nationals working here, you should have respected the sovereignty of Malaysian law. Instead, you committed a cruel murder against the innocent deceased,” he said.
Ahmad Kamal was delivering the judgment of a three-member bench that dismissed the appeals of Sua and Gurpreet against their conviction and sentence.
Also on the bench hearing the appeal were Justices Azizah Nawawi and Azman Abdullah.
The court’s unanimous ruling was delivered on April 16.
Both men have an automatic right to appeal to the Federal Court.
Ahmad Kamal said there was no misdirection by trial judge Nurulhuda Nur ‘Aini Nor that warranted appellate intervention.
“(Nurulhuda) had audio visual benefit to assess all evidence and the credibility of all witnesses who testified. There is no reason to disturb her findings,” he said.
In the 54-page judgment posted on the judiciary’s website yesterday, Ahmad Kamal said the murder had caused a stir among members of the public and received widespread media coverage after the discovery of Aiman’s body two days after the incident.
The offence was committed in a back alley in Selayang Baru, Batu Caves, at about 10pm on June 21, 2018.
The court found robbery to be the motive for the murder.
Ahmad Kamal said the appeals court had considered all of the evidence.
He said records obtained from Grab showed that one “Harry Singh”, identified as Gurpreet, had booked a ride from Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock to Selayang Baru in Kuala Lumpur.
He also said that chemist Nor Aidora Saedon had detected Gurpreet’s DNA on the seat belt of the car driven by the deceased.
Forensic pathologist Dr Nurliza Abdullah testified that the deceased had died through “asphyxiation with smothering”.
Ahmad Kamal said the evidence before the court indicated that the victim was last seen with both accused, whose alibi defence was rejected.
He said the prosecution had proved a prima facie case of common intention to murder. He also said the injury they had intended to inflict was sufficient in the ordinary course of nature to cause death.
Ahmad Kamal said the bench was satisfied that the defence had failed to create a doubt in the prosecution’s case.
In addition, he said, both men were able to lead the police to the discovery of the victim’s key to his Perodua Myvi.
Deputy public prosecutor Solehah Noratikah Ismail appeared for the prosecution while Rajpal Singh and Siti Anis Che Abd Wahab represented the appellants.