Clerk to be offered legal assistance after jail sentence, says MCA

KUALA LUMPUR: The clerk, who was sentenced to six years in jail and sent straight to prison for driving her car into eight teenagers racing modified bicycles in a dark street, will be offered legal assistance, says MCA.

Taking a stance to help 27-year-old Sam Ke Ting (pic), who was not granted bail, MCA's Legal Affairs Bureau chairman Datuk Tay Puay Chuan said his team would contact her family to make the necessary arrangements.

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He said MCA would offer her legal assistance including assisting her with an appeal to ensure she was given fair and impartial representation.

"The High Court's decision is a setback for Sam, and we will offer her the legal support she needs.

"Not only did the High Court overrule the two Magistrate's Courts' previous findings this time, but refused to grant her bail.

"We believe the law is fair and will undertake every effort to assist her (Sam) in her appeal," he said in a statement on Wednesday (April 13).

Earlier on Wednesday, Sam was jailed for six years over a fatal road accident that resulted in the death of eight teenagers in Jalan Lingkaran Dalam, Johor Baru, at 3.20am on Feb 18, 2017, after two Magistrate Courts had earlier acquitted her on the charge.

This came after the prosecution was successful in its second appeal against a Magistrate's Court decision to acquit and discharge Sam, in October last year (2021) on a charge of reckless or dangerous driving.

On Oct 28, 2019, a Magistrate's Court here acquitted and discharged Sam of the charge at the end of the prosecution’s case without calling for her defence.

She was charged under Section 41(1) of the Road Transport Act 1987.

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MCA Youth Legal Bureau chairman Ryan Ho chimed in a separate statement saying the High Court should consider the dangers of "basikal lajak" which endangers the safety of road users.

"In deciding on the attribution of responsibility in this case, the High Court should have taken into account the issue of modified bicycles which endanger the safety of road users, as well as the question as to why the teenagers were not indoors during those wee hours of the morning, but instead, were racing on the road," he said.

Ho said MCA would be in touch with Sam's family for legal assistance.