A Malaysian man, You Poh Khoon, 57, severed the head of his then 74-year-old father, You Su Kim. He had also chopped the body into six parts. This happened between 8 Oct and 9 Oct 2018 in Ipoh, Perak.
Source: The Star
Ipoh High Court sentenced Poh Khoon to death on 25 May 2022. Although he claimed to have been insane, he failed to convince the Court of Appeal.
On Monday (6 Mar), the court upheld his death sentence.
According to The Star, Poh Khoon’s father had scolded him for consuming drugs at home on the day of the incident.
The heated argument led to Poh Khoon cutting off his father’s head with a machete and chopping up his body into six parts.
He buried his father’s head in the backyard. Meanwhile, he dumped the rest of his father’s body parts into a 1.5-metre-deep sewage hole.
The Straits Times reported that Poh Khoon was convicted after his sister found blood on a mattress, pillow and house walls.
He was eventually found guilty of murdering his father. On 25 May 2022, the Ipoh High Court sentenced Poh Khoon to death by hanging.
Poh Khoon attempted to appeal to the court. Free Malaysia Today reported that he claimed to have been insane at the time of the offence.
His lawyer, Amir Faliq Mohamad Jamil, submitted that the prosecution had called a psychiatrist to confirm that Poh Khoon was sane during the murder. Yet, he also did not rule out the possibility of temporary insanity.
According to The Star, the psychiatric report revealed that Poh Khoon tested positive for methamphetamine and amphetamine, which may have led to temporary insanity under drug influence.
However, deputy public prosecutor (DPP) Muhammad Azmi Mashud submitted the psychiatrist’s medical examination results, which confirmed that Poh Khoon was not suffering from any mental illness.
In fact, Poh Khoon “was able to drive a car for more than 100km and detail the incident and what he did to the deceased”, implying he was sane while murdering his father.
Furthermore, the testimony by six prosecution witnesses proclaiming that Poh Khoon became insane under drug influence was only through their observations. The DPP also noted that “during the defence proceedings, no witness contradicted the psychiatrist’s testimony that the appellant was sane at the time of the incident”.
As such, the Court of Appeal rejected Poh Khoon’s appeal and upheld his sentence. However, Poh Khoon can still file a final appeal to the Federal Court to avoid the death sentence.
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Featured image adapted from The Star and Google Maps.
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