KUALA LUMPUR: Two Chilean tourists who killed a Malaysian man in a fight in a hotel lobby shortly after they arrived in the country on holiday were sentenced to two years in prison on Thursday (Nov 15).
Fernando Candia, a 32-year-old chef, and Felipe Osiadacz, 28, pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of culpable homicide over the Aug 4 death in the capital Kuala Lumpur.
The two Chilean men were initially charged for murder which in Malaysia still carries the death penalty - if found guilty they would have faced execution by hanging.
But prosecutors Wednesday offered a lesser charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder over the death of 27-year-old Yusaini Ishak who died from "compressive asphyxia", where pressure on the chest interferes with breathing.
Defence lawyers had argued that the dead man had tried to "extort" money from the Chilean men, and that they defended themselves when he came to the hotel and attacked them.
"It will be in the public interest to send them back. They are victims of circumstances. They were attacked first," defence lawyer Venkateswari Alagendra had said.
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