PUTRAJAYA, March 31 — Sam Ke Ting’s conviction last April over the charge of "reckless or dangerous driving” was illegal as the charge itself was defective, her lawyers argued at the Court of Appeal here today.

The defence team said that the conviction of Sam — who is on trial over a collision in 2017 involving her and a group of teenagers riding "basikal lajak”, resulting in eight of the teenagers’ deaths — should subsequently be overturned.

Lawyer Datuk Hisyam Teh Poh Teik said that the defence was of the view that Section 41 (1) of the Road Transport Act 1987 had three distinct "limbs” — reckless driving, driving at speed, and dangerous driving.

"What the prosecution did in this case, My Lord, was to lump limb one (reckless driving) and limb three (dangerous driving),” he said.

He said that the prosecution should have only selected one of the "limbs” to charge Sam, as supposedly required by law, and cited several case laws to support his argument.

Hisyam then said that Sam had been misled by the "duplicity” of the charge and had to argue on both reckless driving and dangerous driving, at the prima facie and defence stages of the trial.

He also argued that there was a failure of justice when the High Court convicted Sam on the "reckless or dangerous” driving charge, as the charge was illegal.

The proceedings took place in front of a three-judge panel led by Datuk Hadhariah Syed Ismail, who was sitting alongside Datuk Hashim Hamzah and Datuk Azman Abdullah.

After the defence finished its submission, deputy public prosecutor Tengku Amir Zaki Tengku Abdul Rahman said that he intended to emphasise several mistakes made by the Magistrate’s Court when it acquitted Sam in October 2021.

"The Court of Appeal can then re-evaluate the evidence and look back on whether (this case) is right or wrong, (whether) all the facts are there, and what the witnesses have to say.

However, Tengku Amir Zaki said that he would need two hours to complete his arguments, which prompted the judges to adjourn the case to April 11.