MALAYSIA: APEX COURT UPHOLDS DEATH PENALTY ON SRI AMAN PHARMACIST CONVICTED OF 2018 MURDER OF CHINESE NATIONAL WIFE

September 25, 2025:

Kuching Federal Court on September 23, 2025 upheld the death sentence imposed on a Sri Aman pharmacist convicted of murdering his wife in 2018.
A three-judge panel led by Datuk Rhodzariah Bujang unanimously dismissed the appeal of Wong Zing Haw, 48, after reviewing oral and written submissions for the case.
Delivering the court’s decision, Justice Rhodzariah stressed that the crime was extremely serious as it involved the murder of the appellant’s wife.
She said although there was no direct evidence linking the appellant to the murder, the circumstantial evidence was overwhelming, and that both the High Court and Court of Appeal were correct in finding Wong’s defence to be a mere denial of the crime.
The panel also noted that although amendments abolishing mandatory death sentences came into force on July 4, 2023, the crime was deemed to fall within the most severe category.
Sitting with Justice Rhodzariah were judges Datuk Nordin Hassan and Datuk Lee Swee Seng.
Earlier during proceedings, Wong’s counsel Orlando Chua argued that the court had the discretion to impose an alternative sentence instead of death, in line with the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023.
He also argued that there was no premeditation on the part of his client.
“Any mens rea (intent), if at all, was to cause grievous bodily harm rather than to kill,” he said.
However, deputy public prosecutor Mohd Zain Ibrahim contended that all the evidence clearly showed Wong intended to murder his wife.
He said the victim’s injuries, the way the body was disposed of, as well as Wong’s attempt to cover his tracks and fabricate a false story about his wife being missing, all pointed to intent to kill.
In addition, the DPP said Wong—a licensed pharmacist—was found to have notes about the victim’s body parts, three bottles of bleach to mask the smell of death, and a mixture of onions and lemons to conceal the odour in his house.
All this, he said, demonstrated a “cruel and calculated effort to eliminate evidence” of the crime.
Mohd Zain further stressed that the death penalty was not only appropriate but necessary to reflect the seriousness of Wong’s crime and cruelty.
Wong, who owned a pharmacy in Sri Aman, was charged with murdering his Chinese national wife Yang Xi, 31, between 9.30am on Feb 25, 2018 and 4.30pm on March 3, 2018.
It was previously reported that on March 3, 2018, Yang’s decapitated head was found washed up on the banks of Batang Lupar, along Jalan Skait Lama.
After police identified the remains, Wong was summoned to the station and immediately arrested when inconsistencies were found in his statements regarding his wife’s disappearance.
Wong married Yang in 2011, and the couple had two children together.