PUTRAJAYA: The Federal Court today unanimously dismissed a former military doctor’s application to review his conviction for the 2015 murder of deputy public prosecutor Kevin Morais.
Chief Judge of Malaya Hashim Hamzah held that Dr R Kunaseegaran failed to meet the legal threshold required for the apex court to review its past decision.
Hashim noted that Kunaseegaran “complained” that the previous Federal Court panel never considered his defences raised in the appeal and provided no reasons in its judgment for why they were dismissed.
“Upon a review of the notes of proceedings, the (previous) court did consider the accused’s defences such as circumstantial evidence (adduced during the trial and appeals), the validity of his charge, and motive.
“There was no basis to argue that the court never considered them,” he said.
The other judges who heard the appeal were Justices Collin Lawrence Sequerah and Azimah Omar.
On the death sentence imposed, Hashim said there was nothing for the court to decide after Kunaseegaran withdrew his application to have the death penalty reduced to a custodial sentence.
Last year, another Federal Court bench upheld the conviction of Kunaseegaran as well as S Nimalan and S Ravi Chandran for Morais’ death.
Morais’s remains were found in a cement-filled oil drum at Persiaran Subang Mewah, Subang Jaya, on Sept 16, 2015.
Nimalan and Ravi Chandran were sentenced to 35 years and 40 years imprisonment, respectively. Nimalan was also given 12 strokes of the rotan while Ravi Chandran was spared caning because he was over 50 years old.
Three others – R Dinishwaran, AK Thinesh Kumar and M Vishwanath – were acquitted of the murder charge.
Lawyers Malik Imtiaz Sarwar and N Sivananthan represented the doctor while deputy public prosecutor Saiful Edris Zainuddin appeared for the prosecution.
