Apex court upholds Sulu man’s death sentence for teen stabbing in Sabah

 

The Federal Court has upheld the conviction and death sentence imposed on Sajid Bairula, 36, for the 2017 murder of a teenage boy in Beluran, Sabah.

PETALING JAYA: The Federal Court has upheld the death penalty imposed on a stateless man of Sulu descent for the murder of a 14-year-old boy in Sabah six years ago.

Sajid Bairula, 36, was charged with murdering the boy in Beluran on Jan 30, 2017. Two years later, the High Court in Sandakan found him guilty of the offence and sentenced him to death.

Sajid appealed to the Federal Court after the Court of Appeal upheld the verdict in 2021.

Today, a three-member bench chaired by the Chief Justice of Sabah and Sarawak, Abdul Rahman Sebli unanimously upheld the guilty verdict.

Justices Zabariah Yusof and Hasnah Hashim also sat on the panel.

“We have gone through the notes of proceedings as well as the written submissions by both parties and have not found anything wrong with the Court of Appeal’s judgment,” Rahman said in a hearing held in Kota Kinabalu.

Earlier, Sajid’s lawyer, Majnah Abdillah, challenged the conviction by arguing that no DNA evidence had been adduced in respect of bloodstains found on the fingernails of the victim.

Neither were the victim’s bloodstains found on Sajid’s clothes or in the living room where the murder weapon was found, she said.

The lawyer also contended that the prosecution was wrong to rely on an eyewitness account to prove its case.

In response, the prosecution said the testimony of the boy’s mother, who witnessed Sajid stabbing her son, was sufficient to secure the conviction.

DPP Amril Johari prosecuted. - FMT