JUDGMENT

The tragic events that transpired in the early hours of the morning of 14th April, 1982 at Gemencheh in the State of Negeri Sembilan and the resultant death of Dato Mohd. Taha bin Talib, the former Speaker of the State Legislative Assembly, although perhaps not as starting or as dramatic as the assassination of Abrahm Lincoln, generated waves in the country, culminating as they did in these proceedings, with this in turn unfolding, in the course of a trial over a span of some 76 days, a grim and gruesome tale of political intrigue, sorcery, conspiracy and murder involving a Minister of the Crown in office at the material times. The effect of all this was like a scandal in a monastery. And so a chain of events in a small town bore within it the seed of much bigger things.

2. The sequel to this unfortunate and deplorable occurrence was that Dato Mokhtar bin Hashim and Rahmat bin Satiman, the 1st and 2nd appellants in these consolidated appeals, Mohd. Nordin bin Johan, Aziz bin Tumpuk and Aziz bin Abdullah were jointly charged that they on 14th April, 1982 at or about 1.30 a.m. at Kampong Seri Asahan, Gemencheh, in the District Tampin, in the State of Negeri Sembilan, in furt