00:00 The Court of Appeal has upheld the prison sentence on the youth found guilty of killing
00:07 23 people in a fire at the Tarok Kuran Ittifakiyah Tafiq Centre in 2017.
00:14 It also upheld the acquittal of another youth charged in the same incident.
00:19 The three judge panels, chaired by Justice Tato' Abu Bakar Jais, who sat together with
00:25 Justices Tato' Cheh Mohamad Ruzimah Ghazali and Tato' Si Mee Chun, made both decisions
00:31 unanimously on Monday.
00:34 On August 17, 2020, the first teenager, now 22, was convicted by the High Court for the
00:40 murders and ordered to be detained at the pleasure of the Yangtipatuan Agong.
00:45 At the same time, the High Court acquitted and discharged the other teenager, also aged
00:51 22 now, for the same offence without calling him to enter his defence.
00:56 The convicted youth subsequently filed an appeal against the conviction, while the prosecution
01:01 appealed against the acquittal of the second accused.
01:06 Justice Cheh Mohamad Ruzimah, in reading the judgment, said the High Court's decision
01:10 must be upheld as it did not err in its decision to convict and sentence the accused.
01:17 Ruzimah said the panel agreed with the High Court findings on closed-circuit television
01:21 CCTV footage, which decided the evidence presented by the prosecution was strong.
01:28 The CCTV footage from four different locations, namely a nearby Muslim Consumers Association
01:34 of Malaysia (PPIM) office, a petrol station, snooker centre and the appellant's neighbour,
01:41 proved that he was involved in causing the fire intentionally.
01:46 On the Court of Appeals' decision on the appeal by the prosecution, Justice Cheh Mohamad Ruzimah
01:51 said there was no reason to change the High Court's acquittal of the co-accused.
01:57 He said the High Court's verdict found it was difficult to ascertain that the co-accused
02:02 was present at the scene during the particular time of the fire based on testimonies of prosecution
02:08 witnesses and CCTV footage.
02:12 On May 11 this year, in appealing against the acquittal, Deputy Public Prosecutor Hau
02:17 Mei Ling argued that the fire must have been caused by more than one perpetrator because
02:22 it was impossible for a teenager to lift two gas cylinders weighing 28kg at one go.
02:30 Hau said one gas cylinder was placed vertically and the other horizontally in front of a door
02:36 before petrol was poured and an active lighter was placed there.
02:41 Haijan Omar, counsel for both the accused, argued that there were no witnesses who testified
02:47 that the convicted youth had set the school on fire, adding that the prosecution only
02:51 relied on circumstantial evidence.
02:55 The prosecution called a total of 71 witnesses while 6 defence witnesses were called to testify
03:01 throughout the trial which began on May 30, 2018.
03:07 According to the original charges, both teenagers, together with another unidentified individual,
03:13 were accused of murdering and causing the death of 21 students and two teachers at the
03:19 TAFIS Centre at Jalan Kramat Hujung, Kampung Tatok Kramat, Wangsa Maju between 4.15am and
03:25 6.45am on September 14, 2017.
03:30 They were charged under Section 302 of the Penal Code for Murder, read together with
03:35 Section 34 which provides for the mandatory death penalty upon conviction.
03:41 However, Section 97(1) of the Children's Act 2001 provides that offenders under the
03:49 age of 18 cannot be subjected to the death penalty which can be replaced with a prison
03:54 sentence as long as the Yangtipetuan Agong approves, in accordance with Section 97(2)
04:02 of the same Act.
04:03 Thank you.
04:04 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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