SEREMBAN: A 44-year-old Myanmar national has been sentenced to 10 years in jail by the High Court for unintentionally causing the death of a fellow countryman.
Maung Thain Khain, also known as Min Aung, initially faced a murder charge but pleaded guilty to the amended charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
He did not contest the charge after it was read to him before Judge Rohani Ismail.
The offence occurred between midnight and 1.15am on Oct 17, 2021, at a factory in Bahau, Jempol, where both the accused and the victim, 36-year-old Moe Naing, worked.
The charge was under Section 304(a) of the Penal Code, which provides for a prison sentence of up to 30 years and a fine upon conviction.
In mitigation, counsel for the accused, G. Subramaniam Nair, stated that the accused was drawn into a fight by the victim, who accused him of stealing his mobile phone.
"The victim was the one who started a fight when he went looking for the accused and started attacking him," he said.
Subramaniam, assisted by Devika Suppiah, explained that the accused, who was married with two children back home, came to Malaysia in 2015 to support his family.
Subramaniam added that the accused was remorseful and had saved the court's time by pleading guilty.
Deputy public prosecutor M. Kalaivaanan requested a stern punishment to serve as a deterrent to others.
According to the case facts, the victim accused Maung Thain Khain of stealing his phone.
However, the accused later found the phone under a sink in the victim's room and, upset at being blamed, smashed it on the floor.
The victim, angered by this, demanded compensation from the accused.
When the accused refused, the victim attacked him with a chair.
The accused then used a pair of scissors to defend himself, leading to a fight.
The accused was arrested along the North-South Expressway while travelling in a taxi towards Ipoh on Oct 19.
A post-mortem report revealed that the victim died due to a stab wound to the chest.
