The Court of Appeal has unanimously overturned conviction and freed Sam Ke Ting in the basikal lajak case

 

The Court of Appeal has unanimously agreed to free clerk Sam Ke Ting in the case involving modified bicycles, or basikal lajak, from six years ago. On April 13 last year, Sam was found guilty of causing the death of the eight cyclists at Jalan Lingkaran Dalam in Johor Bahru at 3.20 am on Feb 18, 2017, and was sentenced to six years’ jail and fined RM6,000 for reckless driving.

According to a report by FMT, the court held that the charge against Sam was defective, with a three-member panel led Justice Hadhariah Syed Ismail deciding to grant her appeal to set aside her conviction and sentence under Section 41(1) of the Road Transport Act 1987. The other judges on the panel were Justices Hashim Hamzah and Azman Abdullah.

In the high-profile case, Sam was originally freed from a charge of reckless driving by the magistrates’ court in Johor Bahru in October 2019. She was acquitted and discharged at the end of the prosecution’s case without having her called to the stand for her defence.

Following this, the attorney-general’s chambers appealed against the decision to acquit Sam, and the Johor Bahru High Court ordered her to enter her defence on February 18, 2021. A year later, Sam was found guilty by the High Court and began serving her sentence although she would later be granted leave to appeal to the Court of Appeal a week after being initially turned down.

If you don’t already have one, get a dashcam installed to protect yourself so you have solid evidence to use in case something like this ever happens to you, and always be alert on the road.

Mahkamah Rayuan pada Selasa melepas dan membebaskan kerani, Sam Ke Ting atas kesalahan memandu secara melulu sehingga menyebabkan kematian lapan remaja yang menunggang basikal lajak pada 2017.