A day before his scheduled execution for drug trafficking, 31-year-old Pannir Selvam a/l Pranthaman made an eleventh-hour bid on Thursday (23 May), before the very same Court of Appeal which dismissed his appeal, hoping to stave off his execution after his clemency petition had been rejected. The reason: he intends to file a judicial review application before the High Court …

A seemingly simple case, involving a money mule in love scams, has engendered important questions of law of public interest which reached the highest court of the land on Friday (3 May). 49-year-old divorcee and real estate agent Osborn Yap was back in court on Friday morning, in a bid to reduce his jail term for offences committed under the …

The Court of Appeal has upheld the sentence imposed on a man who killed the mother of his former boss in a robbery gone wrong more than 5 years ago. 51-year-old P Mageswaran was found guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, with the intention of causing the death, of 62-year-old Madam Kanne Lactmy. He was handed a jail …

A five-judge Court of Appeal had ruled, on Wednesday (10 April), that there was no obligation on the part of the Prime Minister to call for a by-election when a single vacancy arises in a Group Representation Constitutency (GRC). This ruling was made in the context of a judicial review application by Dr Wong Souk Yee, assistant treasurer of the …

In a series of twists and turns over legal posers, 57-year-old Singaporean businessman Wong Wee Keong and his firm, Kong Hoo (Private) Limited, had been acquitted twice of importing rare Madagascan rosewood logs by the District Court, before being found guilty by the High Court. On Monday (8 April), their charges were finally cleared for the third time by a …

Nearly two years after being handed the death sentence for killing a pimp five years ago, 55-year-old brothel operator Chan Lie Sian is now back in the Court of Appeal on Wednesday (3 April), fighting for his life to be spared. Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon, together with Judges of Appeal Andrew Phang and Judith Prakash, reserved judgment on the appropriate …

A 47-year-old Malaysian bus driver, who was given a jail term of 26 years and 15 strokes of the cane after he pleaded guilty to drug trafficking in the High Court, will have a second chance to defend himself against the charge, as the Court of Appeal allowed his appeal on Tuesday (26 March) morning and sent his case back …

Can a person who returns drugs to its original owner be considered to have trafficked in those drugs by ‘delivering’ to its owner? The Court of Appeal answered the above question in the negative, as it reduced the drug trafficking charge for 40-year-old Ramesh a/l Perumal, to a drug possession charge simpliciter on Friday (15 March). In so doing, the …

A 47-year-old lorry driver, who was sentenced to death for drug trafficking, will have a second chance to escape the gallows; after the Court of Appeal allowed his appeal and remitted his case for a re-trial before another High Court judge on last Friday (1 March). This was because Murugan Subrawmanian, who had initially remained silent when called to put …

In a criminal reference brought by the Public Prosecutor, the Court of Appeal has ruled that accused persons who had pleaded guilty before sentencing, should generally be allowed to retract their plea of guilt at the mitigation stage of sentencing, without the need to provide valid and sufficient reasons for doing so. This ruling, however, does not apply to an …