A High Court in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, has sentenced a Nigerian man, Ibekwe Emeka Augustine, to death after finding him guilty of killing his four-year-old step-grandson by throwing the child from the third floor of an apartment.
The trial judge, Justice K. Muniandy, delivered the verdict on Thursday, holding that the prosecution had proven its case beyond reasonable doubt over the incident, which occurred nearly five years ago.
Augustine, 48, was convicted of causing the death of the child at an apartment in the Setapak area of Kuala Lumpur between 7.45am and 8.15am on November 29, 2020.
He was charged under Section 302 of the Malaysian Penal Code, which provides for a mandatory death sentence or, in the alternative, a prison term of between 30 and 40 years with a minimum of 12 strokes of the cane.
Apart from the murder conviction, the court also found Augustine guilty of four other offences committed on the same day and at the same location.
The offences include attempting to murder his seven-year-old biological son, inflicting grievous injury on his wife, attempting suicide and sexually assaulting his stepdaughter.
The court sentenced him to five years’ imprisonment for the additional offences, to run concurrently with the death sentence, while noting that the attempted murder charge involving his son was brought under Section 307 of the Penal Code, which carries a possible 10-year jail term and a fine.
