Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, who led a three-member bench, said they needed time to deliberate on the oral and written submissions presented by defence lawyers and the prosecution.
Also on the panel hearing the appeal were Justices Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim and Rhodzariah Bujang.
Parties made lengthy submissions on the facts and the law over three days beginning in March.
Today, deputy public prosecutor Yusaini Abdul Karim urged the judges to dismiss lawyer Amer Hamzah Arshad’s call for the bench to adopt the “dual crimes principle” applied in Singapore when a crime involves a single incident.
Amer, representing S Nimalan, had been canvassing that the judges accept the principle as laid down in the Singaporean cases of Daniel Vijay Katherasan and others -v- PP (2010) and PP v Azlin Arujunah and others (2022).
“These cases are not binding on our courts, and the dual crimes are a nonstarter,” said Yusaini.
He said the trial judge was right to find them guilty of murder, and that the accused had a “common purpose” within the meaning of Section 34 of the Penal Code.
Amer earlier submitted that G Gunasekaran, an accused turned prosecution witness, had testified that a discussion held a day before the incident only involved a plan to abduct Morais.
“There was no discussion or plan to murder Morais,” the lawyer said, adding that the prosecution could not take the simplistic approach and rely on common intention to charge all for causing the victim’s death.
Amer said the apex court in Singapore had analysed how Section 34 should be applied to find one person guilty of a serious offence and another of a lesser offence in the same transaction.
The lawyer said at best, Nimalan should only be charged with abduction or disposing of Morais’s body.
Last year, the Court of Appeal upheld the death penalty imposed on ex-military doctor R Kunaseegaran, S Ravi Chandran, R Dinishwaran, AK Thinesh Kumar, M Vishwanath, and Nimalan.
Lawyers N Sivananthan acted for Kunaseegaran, Y Sheelan Samuagan for Dinishwaran, Kitson Foong for Ravi Chandran, Burhanudeen Abdul Wahid for Thinesh Kumar, and Afifuddin Ahmad Hafifi for Vishwanath.
Deputy public prosecutors Fuad Abdul Aziz and Fairuz Johari assisted Yusaini.
The lawyers, in their submissions, took the common position that the murder charge had not been proven, and that at best, their clients were guilty of abducting Morais.
Kunaseegaran submitted that he should be acquitted as he played no role in the crime, although the prosecution’s stand is that he was the mastermind.
The High Court sentenced all the accused to death on July 10, 2020, after they were found guilty of murdering Morais on Sept 4, 2015, somewhere between Sentul, Kuala Lumpur, and Subang Jaya in Selangor.
Morais, 55, was reported missing on Sept 4, 2015, and was last seen leaving his apartment at Menara Duta in Kuala Lumpur in his official car. His body was found in an oil drum filled with cement in Subang Jaya 12 days later.
The prosecution contends that some of the accused in a car staged an accident with the vehicle driven by Morais as he was leaving his home to abduct him.