A former IT employee’s prison sentence for causing a bank manager’s death in a 2019 road rage incident is reduced from 16 to 12 years.
PUTRAJAYA: The Federal Court today reduced a former IT employee’s prison sentence to 12 years for causing the death of a bank manager in a 2019 road rage incident.
A three-member panel chaired by Justice Datuk Nordin Hassan allowed Yew Wei Liang’s appeal to reduce his 16-year jail term.
“We find that the sentence imposed is a bit high, so we reduce the sentence from 16 years to 12 years,” Justice Nordin said.
The panel, however, dismissed Yew’s appeal against his conviction for causing the death of Syed Muhammad Danial Syed Shakir.
Justice Nordin stated there was no error in the Court of Appeal’s decision to uphold the conviction.
Yew, 47, was ordered to serve his jail sentence from the date of his arrest on 10 August 2019.
He had sought for his conviction to be substituted with one for culpable homicide not amounting to murder without intention.
The prosecution had filed a cross-appeal seeking to substitute the conviction with murder under Section 302 of the Penal Code.
Yew was originally charged in 2019 with murdering the 29-year-old bank manager on the PLUS Highway between Kuala Lumpur and Seremban.
The Shah Alam High Court convicted him of culpable homicide not amounting to murder in 2023 and sentenced him to 16 years in prison.
The Court of Appeal upheld that conviction and sentence in March this year.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Ng Siew Wee argued that evidence conclusively showed Yew intended to cause bodily injury to the deceased.
She said Yew drove his car forward, striking the fleeing victim, and then ran over him in an act that was not accidental.
Yew’s lawyer, Datuk N. Sivananthan, submitted that the 16-year term was grossly excessive.
He cited the appellate court’s findings that the victim’s act of retrieving a baseball bat and striking Yew’s car amounted to provocation.
This provocation was deemed capable of triggering sudden anger and a loss of self-control.
Speaking to media after the proceedings, Sivananthan said Yew is expected to be released from Kajang Prison in 2027. – Bernama
