Court of Appeal upholds businessman’s acquittal of the murder of Chinese teenager

Published: Thursday September 2, 2010 MYT 11:27:00 AM
Updated: Thursday September 2, 2010 MYT 1:47:09 PM
Court of Appeal upholds businessman’s acquittal of the murder of Chinese teenager
By M, MAGESWARY

PUTRAJAYA: Businessman Koh Kim Teck is a free man after the Court of Appeal upheld his acquittal of the murder of Chinese teenager Xu Jian Huang in 2004.

This is following the prosecution's failure to locate Koh's whereabouts.

Court of Appeal judge Justice Suriyadi Halim Omar, who chaired a three-man panel, also revoked a warrant of arrest, issued on Aug 24 last year, against Koh after DPP Ishak Mohd Yusoff told the Bench that the arrest warrant could not be executed to him despite three attempts.

"This case has dragged on too long. It is either you did not do anything or you could not do anything," Justice Suriyadi told the prosecutor Thursday.

With him in the panel were Court of Appeal judges Justice Hasan Lah and Ahmad Maarop.

When asked by Justice Suriyadi if the prosecution intended to proceed with the appeal against Koh's two former bodyguards - Resty Agpalo and Mohamad Najib Zulkifli over the same murder charge - DPP Ishak said “Yes”.

Koh and his two former bodyguards were acquitted by a High Court on Sept 20, 2005. The prosecution appealed against his acquittal.

Koh, 56, Agpalo, 38, and Mohamad Najib, 30, were charged in October 2004 with murdering Jian Huang, 14, at a house in Jalan Mengkuang, off Jalan Ampang here, between 11pm on Sept 26, 2004 and 3.30am the next day.

High Court judge Justice Abdul Kadir Musa acquitted all three, ruling that the prosecution had failed to clear many unresolved and unanswered doubts, although it had called 39 witnesses.

He added that the prosecution had also failed to provide any circumstantial evidence that the three had a common intention to murder Jian Huang, Koh's nephew.

When the appeal came up in October 2007, Koh sent a medical certificate dated Oct 25, allegedly from a Lian Tong Hospital in Shenzhen, China, claiming he had been admitted for rheumatic heart disease and high blood pressure, was not fit to travel and was under two weeks observation.

However, on March 12, 2008, DPP Nordin Hassan told the Court of Appeal that Interpol had verified there was no person by the name of Koh Kim Teck in the hospital database.

Koh had been absent from seven times and his whereabouts were unknown. A warrant of arrest was issued for him but was never executed