Appeals court grants final adjournment of appeal hearing by six men convicted of killing Kevin Morais

PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal today allowed a final adjournment of the appeal hearing by six men against their conviction and death sentence for the murder of deputy public prosecutor Datuk Anthony Kevin Morais.

The appeals by Dr R. Kunaseegaran, 60, money lender S. Ravi Chandaran, 52, and four others who are unemployed, namely R. Dinishwaran, 31, A.K. Thinesh Kumar, 30, M. Vishwanath, 33 and S. Nimalan, 30, were supposed to be heard today.

The appeal hearing was supposed to be heard before a panel of three judges comprising Justices Datuk Hadhariah Syed Ismail, Datuk Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim and Datuk Azmi Ariffin.

However, lawyer M. Manoharan requested a short adjournment to prepare the case as he was only appointed by the court to represent Dinishwaran on Oct 31 this year and had yet to see the records of appeal.

Manoharan told the court that although he had been given the link to the records of appeal, he needed the hard copy as he was not well-versed in downloading the documents.

He also said the records of appeal were voluminous.

Kunaseegaran's counsel Datuk N. Sivananthan told the court that he and the lawyers representing the other appellants did not object to the adjournment.

Justice Hadhariah then set three days, Dec 4, 7 and 14, to hear the appeals.

"Nobody is allowed to send (any) letter for adjournment. This is a final hearing date, no adjournment is allowed," she said.

Meanwhile, lawyer Afifuddin Ahmad Hafifi, representing M. Vishwanath, asked the court if he could be allowed to make his submissions on Dec 14 as he would be away on Dec 4 and 7.

Lawyers Burhanudeen Abdul Wahid, Kitson Foong and Amer Hamzah Arshad represented Thinesh Kumar, Ravi Chandaran and Nimalan, respectively.

Deputy public prosecutors Datuk Dusuki Mokhtar, Mohd Fairuz Johari and Mohd Fuad Abdul Aziz appeared for the prosecution.

On July 10, 2020, the six men were sentenced to death by the High Court in Kuala Lumpur after they were found guilty of killing Morais somewhere along Jalan Dutamas Raya Sentul and No. 1, Jalan USJ 1/6D, Subang Jaya, between 7 am and 8 pm on Sept 4, 2015.

Morais, 55, was reported missing on Sept 4, 2015. He was last seen leaving his apartment at Menara Duta in Kuala Lumpur in a Proton Perdana. His body was found in an oil drum filled with cement at Persiaran Subang Mewah, Subang Jaya, on Sept 16, 2015.

High Court judge Datuk Azman Abdullah (now Court of Appeal Judge), in his decision, held that all the six men had a common intention to kill Morais.

He said the defence failed to raise any reasonable doubt as to the six men's involvement in the murder.

The six men then filed their notice of appeal to the Court of Appeal.

-- BERNAMA