KOTA KINABALU: A former senior police officer failed in his attempt to overturn his death sentence for the murder of a single mother in 2011.
Court of Appeal judges Datuk Supang Lian, Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah, and Datuk Wong Kian Kheong unanimously dismissed the application by Ahmad Rizal Umar, 41 on several grounds.
"First, there was the premeditated intention on the part of the appellant to murder the deceased," said Supang.
"Second, there were serious injuries inflicted by the appellant on the deceased, which involved great force and a knife.
"And thirdly, the appellant was at the material time of the incident, a police officer, who had sworn to uphold the law."
Supang said as such, the court affirmed the High Court's decision to sentence Rizal to death.
Earlier, lawyer Ram Singh, who represented Ahmad Rizal, urged the court to exercise its discretion and commute his client's sentence to a 30-year jail term and 12 strokes of the cane.
According to the facts of the case, Rizal murdered Kartini Borhan, 27, between 4am and 5am on Sept 29, 2011.
Rizal, a police inspector at the time of the incident, was later arrested and charged.
On July 22, 2014, a High Court judge discharged and acquitted Rizal of murder without his defence being called.
The prosecution appealed the acquittal to the Court of Appeal, but the appeal was dismissed on Jan 26, 2016.
However, the prosecution won their appeal at the Federal Court, and Rizal was ordered to enter his defence on March 21, 2018, at the High Court before a different judge, as the earlier trial judge had retired.
Rizal was subsequently found guilty of murder and sentenced to death by the High Court on June 25, 2020.
Deputy public prosecutor Mohd Amril Johari prosecuted the case.
Together with Ram was counsel Chen Wen Jye.