'Basikal lajak' case: Female driver's appeal to be heard Monday

According to the court's e-filing system, the appeal of Sam Ke Ting, 27, will be heard before a panel of judges of the Court of Appeal 3, at 9 am.

On April 14, the woman's lawyer, Muhammad Faizal Mokhtar filed a notice of motion for leave to appeal and stay the execution of the jail sentence and fine imposed by the Johor Bahru High Court a day earlier.

High Court Judge Datuk Abu Bakar Katar, who passed the sentence on Sam, also ordered the woman to be jailed for six months if she failed to pay the fine and revoked her driver's license for three years after serving her jail term.

The decision set aside the Magistrate's Court's decision on Oct 10 last year to acquit and discharge the woman of the charge.

Abu Bakar, when reading his decision in allowing the appeal, said the court was satisfied that all the essence of the offence under Section 41 (1) of the Road Transport Act 1987 had been successfully proven.

He said the trial court had erred when it failed to decide whether the woman's defence in her unsworn statement was a mere denial or an after-thought.

The judge said the trial court had also erred in accepting Sam's defence, who said she was unaware of the cycling activity on the night of the incident as an excuse to drive her car in a reckless manner, to the extent of causing the death of the victims

Sam, who was 22 years old at the time of the incident, was charged with committing the offence at Jalan Lingkaran Dalam, here, at 3.20 am on 18 Feb 2017.

Eight teenagers died in the incident, namely Mohamad Azrie Danish Zulkefli, 14; Muhamad Shahrul Izzwan Azzuraimie, 14; Muhammad Firdauz Danish Mohd Azhar, 16; Fauzan Halmijan, 13; Mohamad Azhar Amir, 16; Muhammad Harith Iskandar Abdullah, 14; Muhammad Shahrul Nizam Marudin, 14 and Haizad Kasrin, 16.