TAIPING: A 20-year-old man and his teenage lover have been ordered by the High Court here to enter defence over the alleged murder of the girl’s brother in Kamunting five years ago.
Justice Noor Ruwena Md Nurdin said both accused would stand trial after the prosecution proved a prima facie case against them after going through the evidence.
She set Sept 11 for the trial, which will be conducted via Zoom video conferencing.
During the proceedings earlier, the accused were given three options in their defence trial – to testify under oath on the witness stand for cross-examinations, to give an unsworn statement from the dock without being cross-examined by the prosecution or to keep silent and not answer to the charges.
The man’s lawyer, Ranjit Singh Sandhu, told the court the two accused chose the second option.
Both accused, then aged 15 and 14, were said to have committed the offence at a house in Kamunting between 3pm and 6pm on July 5, 2019.
They were jointly charged under Section 302 of the Penal Code, which was read together with Section 34 of the same Code, at the Magistrate’s Court here on July 19, 2019.
Deputy public prosecutor Sally Chay Mei Ling prosecuted.
It was reported in 2019 that the couple were being investigated for the murder of a 16-year-old student from SMK King Edward VII over a dispute in connection with a mobile phone.
