A NIGERIAN man escaped the gallows after the Court of Appeal today commuted the death sentence imposed on him for the murder of a chief nurse at Serdang Hospital to 35 years imprisonment. 

The three-member panel comprising Justices Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera, Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim, and S.M. Komathy Suppiah also ordered Alowonle Oluwajuwon Gilbert to be punished with 12 strokes of the cane. 

The 40-year-old man was ordered to start his jail sentence from the date of his arrest, which was on May 16, 2019. 

Justice Vazeer, when delivering the court’s unanimous decision, said the bench dismissed Gilbert’s appeal against the murder conviction on the grounds that his conviction for murdering Siti Kharina Mohd Kamarudin could be upheld. 

He said there was no necessity for the court to consider whether other statutory defences applied to Gilbert as the trial judge had rejected his (Gilbert’s) defence of alibi. 

The appellate court also did not find any of the statutory defences applied to Gilbert, he added. 

On the sentence, Justice Vazeer said there was also no suppression of evidence by the prosecution in not providing the entire recordings of a closed-circuit television camera (CCTV) at the Third Avenue Condominium in Cyberjaya, for the days after the incident, to the defence. 

If the recording was essential for the defence case, Gilbert should have made an application for it to be produced, he added. 

However, he said following an amendment to Section 302 of the Penal Code, the court agreed with Gilbert’s counsel,  Afifuddin Ahmad Hafifi, that the death sentence ought to be commuted to imprisonment based on the circumstances and facts of the case.  

“We set aside the death sentence and substitute it with 35 years jail from the date of arrest and he would also be punished with 12 strokes of the whipping,” he said. 

On August 4, 2021, the High Court in Shah Alam found Gilbert guilty of murdering Siti Kharina at Third Avenue Condominium in Cyberjaya between 12.41am on May 9 and 2.30pm on May 15, 2019, and sentenced him to death. 

Earlier in the proceedings today, Afifuddin said Gilbert and the deceased were lovers and living together.  

He said there was no evidence the murder was premeditated, and the finding of Gilbert’s blood on his clothing and at the crime scene meant a sudden fight could have taken place between his client and the deceased. 

He said the trial judge was empowered to convict Gilbert on a lesser charge such as committing culpable homicide not amounting to murder. 

Deputy public prosecutor P. Sarulatha submitted that the trial judge did not need to consider other statutory defences as Gilbert had opted for an alibi defence. 

There was also no necessity to provide the full CCTV recordings as there was no movement at the condominium area after the incident, she added. – Bernama, August 9, 2023.