Mohamad Amier Amzar bin Mohamad Aspar v Pendakwa Raya

Appellant(s): Mohamad Amier Amzar Bin Mohamad Aspar

Respondent(s):

• Pendakwa Raya
• [Timbalan Pendakwa Raya]

• YA Dato' Paduka Azman Bin Abdullah
• YA Datuk Hayatul Akmal binti Abdul Aziz
• YA Tuan Muniandy a/l Kannyappan

• The appellant was charged with murder under section 302 of the Penal Code for killing the victim between 8.20pm and 10.25pm on 15 December 2018 at Sungai Kinta, Kampung Gajah, Perak, and was convicted and sentenced to death by the High Court.
• The prosecution's case relied on an accomplice witness who testified that the appellant attacked the victim at the victim's house with an iron rod, then transported him to the riverbank where his throat was slashed with a curved blade (kerambit), before the body was disposed of in the river tied to a motorcycle.
• The appellant's defence was that the accomplice witness was the one who inflicted the fatal injuries, while the appellant only sustained injuries from the victim's knife and assisted in disposing of the body.

• Whether the prosecution had proven beyond reasonable doubt that the victim was still alive at the specific time and place stated in the charge (Sungai Kinta, between 8.20pm–10.25pm), given the pathologist's inability to pinpoint the exact time of death.
• Whether the charge was rendered defective due to the possibility that fatal injuries (particularly the head injury) may have been inflicted at the victim's house rather than at the location specified in the charge, thereby raising a reasonable doubt as to the prosecution's case.
• Whether the trial judge failed to properly apply maximum evaluation to the credibility of the sole eyewitness, an accomplice, whose evidence was allegedly inconsistent and required independent corroboration before being accepted.

• The Court held that the pathologist's evidence, though unable to fix an exact time of death, was consistent with the accomplice's account that the victim was alive on 15 December 2018 and died after his throat was slashed at Sungai Kinta that night; there was no material discrepancy warranting a finding that the charge was defective.
• The Court found that the accomplice's evidence was sufficiently corroborated by independent circumstantial evidence—including the body found tied to the motorcycle, blood stains in the getaway car, the appellant's discarded clothing, the recovered weapon, and injuries consistent with the appellant's own account of being cut—satisfying the requirement for careful scrutiny of accomplice testimony.
• The appeal against conviction was dismissed as the conviction under section 302 read with section 300(c) of the Penal Code was safe, but the appeal against sentence was allowed; the death sentence was set aside and substituted with 30 years' imprisonment and 12 strokes of whipping, having regard to the appellant's young age and the overall circumstances of the case.