THE hearing of the appeals filed by six men who were convicted and sentenced to death for killing deputy public prosecutor Anthony Kevin Morais which was scheduled on March 3, has been vacated.

Jasmine Cheong, the lawyer representing former pathologist colonel Dr R. Kunaseegaran, when contacted, said the appeal hearing date was vacated during the last case management on January 16, this year.

She said this was because two of the appellants, R. Dinishwaran and S.Ravi Chandaran, have yet to file their petition of appeal.

Cheong said Dinishwaran had appointed a new lawyer to represent him, who needs time to go through the records of appeal and to file the petition of appeal, while Ravi Chandaran is in the midst of filing the petition of appeal.

She said the court has fixed April 11 for case management for the appeal.

On July 10, 2020, Kunaseegaran, money lender S. Ravi Chandaran, and four unemployed persons - Dinishwaran, A.K. Thinesh Kumar, M. Vishwanath and  S. Nimalan - were sentenced to death by the High Court in Kuala Lumpur after they were found guilty for the murder of Morais.

The six were charged with murdering Morais, 55, somewhere along Jalan Dutamas Raya Sentul and No. 1, Jalan USJ 1/6D, Subang Jaya, between 7am and 8pm on September 4, 2015.

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

In his decision, High Court judge Azman Abdullah held that all the six men had common intention to kill Morais.

He said the prosecution succeeded in establishing the case without any reasonable doubt and the defence failed to raise any reasonable doubt against the prosecution’s case. – Bernama, February 17, 2023.