The Court of Appeal was told that the conviction of clerk Sam Ke Ting for reckless driving that killed eight teenage cyclists should not stand because the charges against her were flawed.
Lawyer Hisyam Teh Poh Teik, who represented the woman, argued that there was a doubling of the charge because the prosecutor included two different offenses in the charge, namely reckless driving and dangerous driving.
"This is wrong. Only one offense is legally allowed to be stated in the charge," he said.
Hisyam argued this in Sam's appeal against the High Court's decision which convicted her of reckless driving and sentenced her to six years in prison and a fine.
The lawyer said there was prejudice against his client because there was a "miscarriage of justice" because she was convicted of a charge not recognized in law.
"The High Court judge convicted Sam of driving recklessly or dangerously. The appellant (Sam) did not get what should have been stated in the law," he said in front of a panel of three judges consisting of Hadhariah Syed Ismail, Hashim Hamzah and Azman Abdullah.
Sam, 27, was initially acquitted and released without being called to defend himself by the Johor Bahru Magistrate's Court on 18 November 2019, on charges of reckless driving causing the death of 8 teenagers riding a modified bicycle, known as a bicycle lajak
The eight teenagers who died in the incident are Mohamad Azrie Danish Zulkefli, 14; Muhamad Shahrul Izzwan Azzuraimie, 14; Muhammad Firdauz Danish Mohd Azhar, 16; Fauzan Halmijan, 13; Mohamad Azhar Amir, 16; Muhammad Harith Iskandar Abdullah, 14; Muhammad Shahrul Nizam Marudin, 14 and Haizad Kasrin, 16.
She is alleged to have committed the offense at Jalan Lingkaran Dalam, Johor Bahru, Johor at 3.20am, 18 February 2017. Sam was 22 years old at the time of the incident.
On 18 February 2021, High Court judge Shahnaz Sulaiman allowed the prosecution's appeal and ordered the case to be returned to the Magistrate's Court for Sam to defend herself on the charge of reckless driving.
On 10 October 2021, the Magistrate's Court acquitted and released Sam at the end of the defense case. The prosecution appealed to the High Court.
On April 13 last year, High Court judge Abu Bakar Qatar allowed the prosecution's appeal and convicted her of reckless driving. Sam was sentenced to six years in prison and fined RM6,000.
The woman then appealed to the Court of Appeal and on April 18 last year, the Court of Appeal granted her application to suspend the execution of the prison sentence and fine and released her on RM10,000 bail with one surety while her appeal was heard.
In today's appeal hearing, Hisyam also argued that in the Magistrate's Court, the prosecution's case was a case of reckless driving, but when the case was brought to the High Court first, the prosecution's stance changed to dangerous driving.
Meanwhile, another lawyer representing Sam, Harvinderjit Singh argued that what happened that day was an "emergency situation" and said that the situation was created by the victims and not by Sam.
The victim was riding a modified bicycle at 3 am, he said and added that the prima facie finding against Sam by the first High Court was wrong.
The court fixed April 11 to resume the appeal proceedings after Deputy Public Prosecutor Tengku Amir Zaki Tengku Abdul Rahman said he would take two hours to argue.