Negri MCA lawyers offer to assist clerk convicted over mat lajak deaths

SEREMBAN: Four lawyers from Negri Sembilan MCA have offered to assist 27-year-old Sam Ke Ting, who was sentenced by the Johor Baru High Court to serve six years in jail for driving her car into eight teenagers racing modified bicycles in a dark street.

State MCA chief Siow Koi Voon said the team is also ready to help Sam appeal the court's decision after she was sent straight to prison after she was convicted of the offence.

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"I know that the MCA Legal Bureau team at the headquarters will be taking up the matter, but we are prepared to help out in any way we can.

"Many Malaysians have raised questions on the case and we want to help Sam get a stay of execution first and then to appeal at the Court of Appeal," he said.

Siow said the four-member team will comprise state legal bureau advisor Maria Cheng, state legal bureau head Yong Wan Fuon, party national Civil Society Movement bureau head Ng Kian Nam and himself.

He, however, expressed his sympathy to the parents whose children were killed in the incident and also asked people not to turn the issue into a racial one.

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Cheng said although the High Court had the discretion not to grant a stay, it should have considered the fact that the case was a road accident and there was no criminal element in it.

"This discretion should be exercised judiciously.

"The court should also have taken into account if the accused would abscond, to which we do not see a possibility or whether her release would pose a threat to anyone else," she said.

Yong said Section 31 of the Child Act also stipulates that parents must be responsible for the safety of their children and not expose them to any danger.

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"It is truly unfortunate that eight children died in the incident, but I am sure people would want to know what they were doing there at 3.20am when the accident happened," he said.

On Wednesday (April 14), Sam was jailed for six years following 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.

Two Magistrate Courts had earlier acquitted her on the charge.

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