Kota Kinabalu: A schizophrenic 23-year-old man, who voluntarily caused hurt to his father by hitting the latter’s head with a brick, was jailed two years.
Sessions Court Judge Elsie Primus meted out the sentence to Mohd Azhar Juri who maintained his plea on Tuesday which set for facts and sentencing.
Mohd Azhar will be free in a few days as the court ordered him to serve the jail sentence from the date of his arrest on May 27, 2020.
He had caused injury to his father Juri Tinggiew, 58, at 2pm on May 26, 2020 in front of a house in Kg Tengkurus, Kota Belud.
He was charged under Section 324 of the Penal Code which was read together with 326A of the same Code.
Punishment for Section 324 of the Code provides for a jail term of up to 10 years, or fine, or whipping, or with any of such punishments and for Section 326A, it provides for two times of the jail sentence under the Section the person was charged.
Before handing down the sentence, the court accepted Mohd Azhar’s plea and was satisfied that he had understood the proceedings.
Before Mohd Azhar’s mitigation, the prosecution had tendered a psychiatric report from Hospital Mesra Bukit Padang about his condition.
The court revealed that the report showed Mohd Azhar, who was 21 at the time of the crime, was fit to plea and stand trial. The report also stated that Mohd Azhar has schizophrenia.
In his mitigation, Mohd Azhar asked for leniency and applied for no whipping.
When asked by the court whether his family had visited him, he said only his friend from a vocational college visited him but that he had met his family in court including his father.
Mohd Azhar told the court that his father did not want to withdraw the police report and according to him, after completing his jail sentence, he will go to his uncle’s house.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Tham Pou Jin urged the court to impose a heavy and deterrent sentence on Mohd Azhar as he had hit his own biological father and the incident was witnessed by his family members. Tham further submitted that the court must consider the rampancy of the case involving family members.
She added that the punishment should give a lesson not only to Mohd Azhar but also public at large.
The court heard that the father had lodged a police report on May 26, 2020 claiming that he was hit with a brick by his son and suffering injury on his head following the incident.
Investigation revealed that the incident happened after they had finished their lunch in the living room.
The father then went outside the house to wash his hands and at the time, his youngest son Mohd Azhar was there.
Mohd Azhar then called his father “anjing bodoh (stupid dog)” several times.
The father then approached Mohd Azhar and asked why he called him that. Mohd Azhar then took a brick and hit the father’s head before fleeing the scene.
Mohd Azhar’s sister and brother in-law, who witnessed the incident, tried to catch Mohd Azhar but to no avail.
The father was then sent to the hospital for treatment.
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