A three-member bench chaired by Justice Azmi Ariffin found that Zaw Thin, 54, had the intention to murder the late Wai Zin Ang.

Azmi said the stab wounds on the victim’s neck and abdomen were inflicted with a butcher knife to cause death.

He pointed out that an eyewitness saw Zaw come out of a room in the house holding a blood-stained knife.

“He ran away after the incident, but the police caught him two days later,” said Azmi, who sat with Justices Hayatul Akmal Abdul Aziz and Meor Hashimi Abdul Hamid.

The judge said a pathologist also found defensive wounds on the victim, which implied that Zaw had attacked the deceased.

He ruled that the trial judge had erred in reducing the murder charge to culpable homicide not amounting to murder and sentencing Zaw to just 15 years’ jail.

“We are not of the view that there was grave and sudden provocation by the victim which led to a fight,” Azmi said.

The bench also dismissed the notion that Zaw was in a state of intoxication when the incident happened.

Zaw, a former factory worker, killed his colleague at a shophouse in Jalan Pahat, Petaling Jaya, at 8.30pm, on Aug 29, 2019.

The charge of murder is punishable by the death sentence or 30 to 40 years in prison and a minimum 12 strokes of the rotan if a male offender is 50 years old or younger.

Azmi ordered the jail term to begin from Zaw’s date of arrest on Aug 31, 2019. The foreigner has a final round of appeal before the Federal Court.

Deputy public prosecutor Allan Suman Pillai appeared for the prosecution while R Mahendren Naidu acted for Zaw.