Walk free: Bujet with his lawyer Singh.
KOTA KINABALU: A 73-year-old Sarawakian has walked out a free man after he was acquitted of manslaughter without his defence being called.
Kota Kinabalu Sessions Court judge Amir Shah Amir Hassan cleared Bujet Otek of the charge of killing a 15-year-old boy who was found dead in the middle of a padi field at Kampung Lubok Kiulu in Tuaran at 2.20pm on Oct 25, 2017.
Bujet also faced a charge of attempting to murder a three-year-old girl on the same day and time at a construction site where he was working as a lorry driver.
On July 23, 2019, a joint trial was held for both charges. On Oct 25, 2019, Sessions Court judge Noorhafizah Salim acquitted Bujet of the charge of attempted murder at the end of prosecution’s case.
The prosecution appealed against the acquittal but withdrew the appeal on May 6, 2021.
As for the manslaughter charge, Noorhafizah amended the charge at the end of the prosecution case and ordered him to enter his defence.
Bujet then appealed against the decision right up to the Court of Appeal, which directed the manslaughter case to be sent back to the Sessions Court for a retrial.On Dec 22, 2022, the trial was then re-heard once again before Sessions Court judge Ummu Kalthom Abd Samad. However, the judge, after having re-commenced the trial with two witnesses, subsequently retired from her position.
Session Court judge Amir Shah took over the case in a hearing on July 1, 2024, with the prosecution closing its case on July 12, 2024, after 14 witnesses testified.
In Bujet’s defence, lawyer Datuk Seri K. Rakhbir Singh had argued that there was not a single footprint of Bujet going to the place where the body of the boy was found at the padi field.
Bujet, who was with his wife in court, was moved to tears following the judgment and thanked his lawyer for his freedom.
