The Malaysian Court of Appeal acquitted and discharged...

The Malaysian Court of Appeal acquitted and discharged five men who appealed against their conviction and death sentence for the 26 July 1998 murder of A. Balaraman, a 50-year-old palm oil estate worker. The judges' decision was unanimous. In allowing the appeal, Justice Abdul Kadir held that the court was of the view that the prosecution had failed to establish a prima facie case against S.Sivakumar, 33, V.Muruga, 31, S.Vijayan, 29, N.Ravindran, 27, and a 22-year-old man who was 17 at the time of the offence. As such, the judge said, the court did not have any other alternative but to set aside the conviction and sentence imposed by the Ipoh High Court on October 2 2000 against them. Four of them were sentenced to death while the underage boy was ordered to be detained at the pleasure of the State Authority of Perak. In his judgment, Justice Abdul Kadir said the Court of Appeal was not satisfied that each of the five was positively identified as the assailant of the murder victim. "We find that the quality of identification by the identifying witnesses, i.e. the wife and the daughter of the deceased, is poor and made under unsatisfactory condition," he said. The three-member panel also held that the element of common intention had not been established by the prosecution. "It is unfortunate that a human life is lost due to the killing, but the issue here is that who killed the victim and under what circumstances," he added.