Hong Kong jury unanimously finds Malaysian ex-professor guilty in lethal yoga ball murders of wife, teen daughter

HONG KONG, Jan 14 — A former Malaysian university professor has been found guilty in a retrial for the deaths of his wife and daughter, killed by carbon monoxide from a yoga ball filled with lethal gas.

After less than four hours of deliberation, a Hong Kong High Court jury unanimously found that anaesthesiologist Khaw Kim Sun, 60, was guilty of murdering his wife Wong Siew Fing, 47, and their 16-year-old daughter, Lily Khaw Li Ling, according to a report published in the South China Morning Post today.

The pair died of carbon monoxide poisoning in 2015 after a leaky yoga ball filled with the toxic gas was placed in the boot of Khaw’s Mini Cooper.

Khaw was initially convicted in 2018 and sentenced to life imprisonment, but he appealed the ruling, arguing that the trial judge had misdirected the jury.

In 2023, the Court of Final Appeal quashed his conviction and ordered a retrial, which began in November last year.

During the retrial, Khaw dismissed his legal team and represented himself.

He testified that he had acquired the carbon monoxide for a lab experiment involving oxygen resuscitation of rabbits exposed to the gas.