Justice Wong Kian Kheong said all officers were required under Section 13 of the Police Act 1967 to take an oath.
“By murdering the deceased, the appellant had betrayed his declaration to ‘obey, uphold and maintain’ the law,” he said, adding that the bench exercised its sentencing discretion to affirm the punishment on grounds of public interest.
Last September, a three-member bench chaired by Justice Supang Lian, sitting in Kota Kinabalu, dismissed Ahmad Rizal Umar’s appeal against conviction and sentence for killing Kartini Borhan, 27.
Also on the panel hearing the appeal was Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah.
Rizal, who held the rank of inspector, committed the offence at an apartment in Taman Andika, Keningau, between 4am and 5am on Sept 29, 2011.
Wong delivered his 37-page written grounds earlier this week, paving the way for Rizal, 43, to exercise his automatic final right of appeal to the Federal Court.
The judge said Rizal had used violence and great force to kill Kartini with a knife leaving the victim suffering 10 injuries, including a horrific second stab wound.
“After the murder, he attempted to conceal the offence by alleging that Kartini had
been killed by an assailant who broke into the premises to rob her.
“Worse still, he had the temerity to make the false police report and had not shown any remorse,” he said.
He said Rizal used his police training and work experience as an investigating officer to conceal the crime.
According to the facts of the case, Rizal was in Kartini’s rented apartment on the day of the incident but made it look as if a robber had broken into the premises and attacked both of them.
Wong said a forensic pathologist gave evidence that Rizal’s injuries were self-inflicted and not consistent with the consequences of a combative encounter with a robber.
The motive for the murder was a love triangle as the deceased was alleged to have been having an affair with another man.
In mitigation earlier, lawyer Ram Singh, who was assisted by Chen Wen Jye, asked for Rizal to be imprisoned and whipped, saying he was a first offender and father to two children.
In response, deputy public prosecutor Amril Johari called for the death penalty to be retained as the accused was a law enforcement officer who had attacked his victim brutally.