Appeal Court restores bound over decision on bowler
PUTRAJAYA, Aug 8 — National Tenpin bowling ace Noor Afizal Azizan escaped custodial sentence as the Appeal Court here today allowed his appeal to restore the decision of a Sessions Court, which bound him over for good behaviour for five years, for sum of RM25,000 for committing statutory rape.
A three-member panel led by Court of Appeal president Tan Sri Raus Md Sharif unanimously set aside the five-year jail term imposed on Noor Afizal by the Malacca High Court in allowing the prosecution’s appeal for a heavier sentence.
Raus, in his decision, agreed with counsel Hisyam Teh Poh Teik that public interest would not be served if Noor Afizal was sent to jail as he had a bright future.
Court of Appeal judges Datuk K. N. Segara and Datuk Azhar Ma’ah were the other two judges presiding on the panel.
On July 5, last year, the Malacca Sessions Court bound over Noor Afizal, 21, for good behaviour on a bond of RM25,000 for five years in one surety after he pleaded guilty to committing the offence on a 13-year-old girl at a hotel in Ayer Keroh, Malacca between 12.30am and 5am on June 5, 2009. — Bernama
