Malaysia jails Chinese national over car crash that killed Sabah court official
Sun Xue Song was also fined and banned from holding a driving licence for five years
A Chinese national has been sentenced to five years’ jail for causing the death of Sabah State Courts director Marutin Pagan, 56, in an accident in Malaysia.
Sessions Court Judge Rosli Ahmad ordered on Tuesday that Sun Xue Song, 42, was to serve the prison term from March 30, the date of his arrest.
Sun was also fined 20,000 ringgit (US$4,721) in default of three months’ jail and disqualified from holding a driving licence for five years from April 7, the date he was charged.
Sun had initially entered a not guilty plea when the charge was first read to him by a court interpreter before Magistrate Romario Jonoi.
On May 16, he changed his plea to guilty during pre-trial case management before Magistrate Oon Kork Chern.
Oon then recused himself from hearing the case further because of his acquaintance with the victim, and it was then scheduled for reassignment before Rosli.
According to the facts of the case, the engineer was accused of driving a sports utility vehicle dangerously, causing Marutin’s death at the Kanowit roundabout near Sibu in Sarawak state at around 1pm on March 30.