KOTA KINABALU: Thirteen vocational college students have been charged with the murder last month of their 17-year-old dormitory mate.
No plea was recorded from the accused who were charged before magistrate Nur Asyraf Zolhani at the Lahad Datu Magistrate’s Court yesterday.
The case is expected to be transferred to the High Court.
The 13 students, aged between 16 and 19, were accused of murdering Mohammad Nazmie Aizzat Mohd Narul Azwan at the dormitory room of Lahad Datu Vocational College between 9pm on March 21 and 7.38pm on March 22.
They could face the death penalty or a prison term of no less than 30 years and a maximum of 12 strokes of the rotan under Section 302 of Penal Code read together with Section 34.
The 13 accused were brought yesterday to the Magistrate’s Court where the proceedings were closed to others, with only their families allowed into the courtroom as the case involved juveniles.
The prosecution was led by deputy public prosecutor Ng Juhn Tao.
Two of the accused were represented by lawyers Amirul Amin Rashid and Kamarudin Mohmad Chinki. The other 11 accused were not represented.
Nur Asyraf set May 16 for the next mention of the case pending the final postmortem and chemist reports.
The 13 accused were arrested on March 22 by police after a warden found Mohammad Nazmie’s body in the dormitory.
Initial police investigations found that the victim was beaten up because he was suspected of stealing RM85 that two other boys said was missing.
In an unrelated case, a former assistant manager of Sabah’s troubled goldmining company has been slapped with four counts of misusing the company’s gold concentrate residue.
Brando Phan Tze Chiang, 49, pleaded not guilty to the charges that were read separately to him before magistrates Dayang Aidaku Amira Aminuddin and Don Stiwin Malanjum in Tawau yesterday.
The accused, who was previously a gold room supervisor at Wullerdorf Resources Sdn Bhd (WRSB), was charged with fraudulently taking the remaining gold concentrate residue belonging to WRSB for his own use.
He was accused of having committed the offences in October 2020, October 2021, May 2022 and December 2022 at the Bukit Mantri goldmine in Balung, Tawau.
The four charges were framed under Section 403 of the Penal Code for dishonest misappropriation of property belonging to WRSB.
Phan faces imprisonment of up to five years, fines and a whipping if convicted.
Deputy public prosecutor Mohd Syahnidzam Ahmad led the prosecution while lawyer Chin Teck Ming and Vivian Thien represented Phan.
He was offered bail of RM10,000 for each charge with RM15,000 deposited.
The case will be mentioned again on May 14.
On March 28, the company’s former geologist Edwin James, 36, was fined RM32,000 after he pleaded guilty to four counts of illegally transporting gold concentrate residue for sale to a goldsmith in Raub, Pahang. He paid the fine.
James pleaded guilty to the charges framed under Regulation 6 (1) (c) of the Mineral Development (Licensing) Regulations 2016 that were committed at the Inanam Express bus station here between 2020 and 2022.
The gold was from Sabah’s controversial goldmine in Tawau that has been rocked by multiple investigations.
The court was told that James had received at least RM800,000 from the illegal dealings.
