PUTRAJAYA, April 16 — The Court of Appeals here today upheld the conviction and 15 years’ jail sentence on two brothers for causing the death of a police constable in 2008.

A three-member panel chaired by Datuk Aziah Ali said there was sufficient evidence to support the charge against Saiful Baharin Jalil, 34, and his brother Mohd Haniffah Jalil, 33.

The panel, which also comprised Justices Datuk Ahmadi Asnawi and Datuk Zamani A. Rahim, had dismissed the brothers' final appeal against their conviction and jail sentence.

Justice Aziah, however, acquitted and discharged five other men on the charge after ruling there were insufficient evidence against them.

The court had allowed the appeal by Khairrul Anwar Abu Hashim, 25, (rpt Khairrul) Razif Md Shah, 25; Johar Bahir, 29; Norhamezi Omar, 30; and Firdaus Md Shah, 30, to set aside their conviction and 15 years’ jail sentence.

The seven men were appealing against the decision of the Malacca High Court which had upheld the decision of the Sessions Court to convict and sentence them to 15 years jail for the charge.

They were alleged to have committed culpable homicide not amounting to murder of Mohd Fairuz Shafiee, 23, in front of Subaidah Nasi Kandar Restaurant near the Malacca International Trade Centre in Ayer Keroh, near here, at 11.05pm on November 21, 2008.

The men were jointly charged with four others still at large.

Fairuz, who was attached to the criminal division of the Malacca police contingent headquarters, sustained severe head injuries in the assault and fell into a coma. He died nearly three months later.

According to the facts of the case, the deceased was said to have an affair with Saiful Baharin's wife who ran away from home for two months. This resulted in a fight.

Counsel L. Andrew represented the two brothers, Razif and Firdaus while counsel K. Shashi and Reena Nair for Khairrul Anwar. Norhamezi was represented counsel G. Subramaniam Nair and Ebrina Zubir while Johar was represented by counsel Hanif Hasan. — Bernama