Over 700,000 sign petitions on behalf of clerk convicted over mat lajak deaths

KUALA LUMPUR: More than 700,000 signatures have been added to online petitions on behalf of Sam Ke Ting, who was sentenced to six years in prison over the 2017 deaths of eight teenagers on "basikal lajak".

The 27-year-old clerk was sent straight to prison on Wednesday (April 13) when the Johor Baru High Court overturned two previous Magistrate's Court acquittals.

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The verdict saw four petitions launched on Change.org, two of them each passing the 300,000 signature mark each as at 1pm Thursday (April 14).

If a petition reaches 500,000 signatures, it is considered a "top signed petition" on the website.

Muhammad Affin, who created one petition which had over 330,000 signatures at the press time, said in his description of the post that despite the bitterness over the loss of lives, justice must be upheld.

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"No one wants an accident to happen, even more if it involves losing young souls.

"There is no denying there will be emotions attached to this case, but justice needs to be upheld.

"The truth and facts cannot be ignored.

"The tragic incident happened on the road after 3am.

"Those roads are for cars not for (minors on) modified bicycles.

"It was proven that she was driving within the speed limit during the incident," he said in his post with supporting articles.

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He added that the modified bicycles were not allowed and since Sam was acquitted of the charges twice it did not make sense to overturn the decision.

"Despite the loss of life being tragic, we must not victimise another," he said.

Another petition which garnered over 340,000 signatures as at 1pm Thursday was created by a user named Wan Junaida with the hashtag #FreeSamKeTing.

Wan Junaida said Sam was earlier freed from the charge of reckless driving with the magistrate noting that she was not under the influence of alcohol, was not using her phone and had her seatbelt on while driving.

"This proved that she was driving responsibly and carefully.

"It was a dark, hilly and winding road where the driver could not foresee that there would be a group of cyclists on the road at 3am.

"We Malaysians are horrified by the new sentence, when there are facts supporting that she was a responsible driver and the real victim in this accident.

"We do not accept this judgment, and seek to have her sentence overturned, so as not to rob the bright future of a young, innocent Malaysian citizen," Wan Junaida said.

Sam was also fined RM6,000 in default six months' jail and banned from driving for three years after completing her prison term.

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This came after the court reversed two prior acquittals by Magistrate's Courts, the latest being in October when she was freed from a charge of reckless or dangerous driving under Section 41(1) of the Road Transport Act 1987.

She was acquitted and discharged at the end of the prosecution’s case without her defence being called.

The incident occurred in Jalan Lingkaran Dalam, Johor Baru at 3.20am on Feb 18, 2017 when Sam's car hit a group of cyclists on modified "basikal lajak".

The eight cyclists who died were Mohamad Azrie Danish Zulkefli, 14; Muhamad Shahrul Izzwan Azzuraimie, 14; Muhammad Firdauz Danish Mohd Azhar, 16; Fauzan Halmijan, 13; Mohamad Azhar Amir, 16; Muhammad Harith Iskandar Abdullah, 14; Muhammad Shahrul Nizam Marudin, 14; and Haizad Kasrin, 16.