Kuala Lumpur: The Court of Appeal here today dismissed a former bus driver’s application to review the eight-year jail sentence imposed on him for sodomising an 11-year-old boy in his vehicle in 2016.

According to BERNAMA News Agency, a three-judge panel, comprising Justices Datuk Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim, Datuk Mohamed Zaini Mazlan, and Datuk Ahmad Fairuz Zainol Abidin, ruled that there was no merit in Kassim Tahir’s review application. Delivering the court’s decision, Justice Ahmad Zaidi stated that Kassim had failed to show any exceptional circumstances warranting the panel’s interference with the decision of the previous Court of Appeal panel.

Justice Ahmad Zaidi further noted that the applicant had not provided evidence of flagrant incompetence by his former lawyer. He added that throughout the trial, Kassim’s defence counsel had competently fulfilled his duties and functions.

On September 20, last year, the Court of Appeal panel, comprising Justices Datuk Hadhariah Syed Ismail (now retired), Datuk Azman Abdullah, and Datuk S.M. Komathy Suppiah (now retired), reinstated the Sessions Court’s decision, which had convicted Kassim of the offence. The panel, however, reduced Kassim’s prison term from 10 years to eight years and set aside the whipping sentence initially imposed on him.

On July 16, 2019, the Sessions Court convicted Kassim on three counts of sodomising the boy, sentencing him to 10 years in prison with one stroke of the cane for each charge, with the sentences to run concurrently. On September 8, 2020, the High Court overturned the Sessions Court’s decision and acquitted and discharged him, leading the prosecution to appeal to the Court of Appeal.

According to the charge sheet, Kassim committed the offences on a bus in Ulu Tiram, Johor, between April 2016 and May 2016. During today’s proceedings, Kassim’s lawyer, G. Subramaniam Nair, argued that the previous Court of Appeal panel had failed to address or had overlooked the flagrant incompetence of Kassim’s previous lawyer in handling the facts and the law of his case, which had led to a mistrial.

He further contended that the evidence showed there was a ‘designed criminal conspiracy’ to implicate Kassim with those charges. Deputy public prosecutor Mohd Fairuz Johari countered that the issue of counsel’s competency was without merit, as it had not been raised during the proceedings at the High Court or before the previous Court of Appeal panel. He also argued that there were no exceptional circumstances that warranted a review of the case.