Dhiya Syazwani Izyan binti Mohd Akhir

On the court record

An appellate criminal practice in the Court of Appeal, concentrated on murder and drug trafficking.

Dhiya Syazwani Izyan binti Mohd Akhir appears in the Court of Appeal (Mahkamah Rayuan), and the reported decisions place her on the appellant side and, in some matters, for the prosecution in serious criminal appeals. The two dominant subjects are homicide — the offence of murder under "seksyen 302 Kanun Keseksaan" (section 302 of the Penal Code), read with the common-intention provision in section 34 — and drug trafficking under "seksyen 39B(1)(a) Akta Dadah Berbahaya 1952" (section 39B(1)(a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952).

A distinctive strand concerns the adequacy of the charge. The reported matters engage the principle that a criminal charge must disclose the essential elements of the offence, and the boundary between murder and the lesser offence of culpable homicide not amounting to murder under "seksyen 304(a)" of the Penal Code, together with procedural provisions such as "seksyen 173" of the Criminal Procedure Code governing the conduct of a trial. The trafficking work engages the presumptions of the Dangerous Drugs Act.

Acting as appellant and, in some matters, as prosecuting counsel, the reported task is to challenge or defend the trial court's characterisation of the offence and its assessment of the evidence. In the homicide matters the argument frequently concerns whether the facts support the intention required for murder or fall within the reduced category of culpable homicide, and whether the charge properly disclosed the elements of the offence; in the drug matters the correct drawing of the presumptions.

The overall profile is an appellate criminal practice in the Court of Appeal, concentrated on murder and drug trafficking. The matters turn on the intention element in homicide, the adequacy of the charge, and the drug presumptions, rather than on primary fact-finding at trial, marking an appellate speciality at the serious end of the criminal calendar. The insistence that a charge disclose the essential elements of the offence is a recurring foundation of the appellate argument in these matters.