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Sam Ke Ting has been granted a stay of execution by Malaysia's Court of Appeal (COA) after she was previously sentenced to six years in prison and a fine by the Johor Bahru High Court.

Granted bail

According to Malay Mail and The Edge Markets, the 27-year-old Malaysian was also granted RM10,000 (S$3,201) bail with one surety.

Additionally, the court allowed her leave for application to appeal her High Court conviction.

Her lawyer Faizal Mokhtar will have 14 days to file the notice of appeal with the Johor Bahru High Court.

A three-man panel consisting of Justices P. Ravinthran, Lee Heng Cheong, and Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali had ruled unanimously in favour of Sam's applications, reported The Star.

Background

In February 2017, Sam was charged with reckless or dangerous driving, which resulted in the deaths of eight teenagers.

The incident took place at around 3:20am on Feb. 18, 2017 at Jalan Lingkaran Dalam, Johor Baru.

Sam was 22 years old then.

She had plowed into a group of more than 30 teenagers riding "basikal lajak", modified bicycles where the handlebars are level with the seat. They are also known as "mosquito bikes".

The eight teenagers who died were aged 13 to 16. Eight others were injured in the collision.

Sam was initially acquitted and discharged by the Magistrate Court, but the prosecution later succeeded in their second appeal against the decision.

On April 13, 2022, High Court Judge Abu Bakar Katar found Sam guilty and sentenced her to six years in jail and a fine of RM 6,000 (S$1,919).

The judgement sparked a lot of criticism from Malaysians. A few petitions were also set up on Change.org, in hopes of getting the judgement overturned.

Shafee Abdullah, who formally represented Najib Razak in cases related to the 1MDB scandal, had also offered Sam his legal services for free.

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