Kevin Morais' murder: March 14, 2024 appeal verdict for six facing gallows

PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal on Thursday (Dec 14) set March 14, 2024, for its verdict on the appeal by the six men sentenced to death after they were convicted of killing Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Datuk Anthony Kevin Morais, eight years ago.

The men are former pathologist Col Dr R. Kunaseegaran, 60, money lender S. Ravi Chandaran, 52, and unemployed individuals R. Dinishwaran, 31, A.K. Thinesh Kumar, 30, M. Vishwanath, 33, and S. Nimalan, 30.

The three-panel bench comprising Judges Datuk Hadhariah Syed Ismail, Datuk Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim and Datuk Azmi Ariffin set the date after hearing the submissions of DPP Datuk Mohd Dusuki Mokhtar and the appellant's lawyers.

Today was the last day of the appeal hearing after both parties had delivered their closing submissions on Dec 4 and 7.

In Thursday's proceedings, lawyer Datuk N.Sivananthan represented Dr. Kunaseegaran, while the other lawyers were M. Manoharan for Dinishwaran, Burhanudeen Abdul Wahid (Thinesh Kumar), Afifuddin Ahmad Hafifi (Vishwanath), Amer Hamzah Arshad (Nimalan) and Kitson Foong (Ravi Chandaran).

On July 10, 2020, the six men were sentenced to death by the Kuala Lumpur High Court after they were found guilty of killing Morais somewhere along Jalan Dutamas Raya Sentul and No. 1, Jalan USJ 1/6D, Subang Jaya, between 7am and 8pm on Sept 4, 2015.

Morais, who was reported missing on Sept 4, 2015, was last seen leaving his apartment at Menara Duta, Kuala Lumpur in a Proton Perdana. His body was found in a cement-filled oil drum at Persiaran Subang Mewah, Subang Jaya, on Sept 16, 2015.

High Court judge Datuk Azman Abdullah (now Court of Appeal Judge) held that all the six men had a common intention to kill Morais and that the court found the defence had failed to raise a reasonable doubt against their involvement in the murder.

Earlier during today's proceedings, Mohd Dusuki submitted that it is justified to uphold the death sentence imposed by the High Court and there was no basis for the Court of Appeal to interfere with the sentence.

"The appellants merely denied the facts of the case without any substantive or corroborative evidence. The bare denial by the defence fails to address the facts that connect them to the killing of the victim," he said.

Mohd Dusuki submitted that there was no need to prove the mastermind responsible for Kevin Morais’ murder because circumstantial evidence presented throughout the trial was sufficient to show the six men killed him.

"As a whole, the combined evidence can only lead to one inference about the involvement of the appellants in causing the death of Kevin Morais, which is the confidence that the appellants are the only people involved in this case and there is no other individual involved at all.

Meanwhile, Manoharan appealed for the court's decision to be based on the facts of the case and not emotions.

"There have been murder cases involving a police chief and a judge, but this is the first murder of a DPP. Therefore, regardless of the sentiments the court must reach a decision based on law," he said.

The other lawyers concurred with him and appealed for their clients’ convictions to be set aside and if the convictions were to be upheld they pleaded for the death sentence to be commuted to imprisonment. – Bernama