Federal Court sentences former odd-job worker to 30 years jail for murder

 

The Federal Court was told that Firdaus Abdul Karim was only 18 when he committed the crime.

PUTRAJAYA: The Federal Court today sentenced a former odd-job worker to 30 years jail for the murder of a contractor who threatened to make public intimate pictures of his lover.

Firdaus Abdul Karim, 27, who murdered Azzad Suhani Hilalludin as a youthful offender, was also ordered to be given 12 strokes of the rotan.

A three-member bench chaired by Justice Harmindar Singh Dhaliwal ordered Firdaus’s jail term to begin from Jan 5, 2015.

Justices Abu Bakar Jais and Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil were the other members on the bench.

Court-assigned lawyer S Paul Krishnaraja informed the bench that his client was only appealing against the death sentence imposed by the Melaka High Court and later affirmed by the Court of Appeal.

Deputy public prosecutor Noorhisham Jaafar also confirmed that Firdaus had abandoned his attempt to appeal against his conviction.

Sentencing discretion for murder and drug trafficking was given to judges through amendments to several laws that took effect last July.

For murder, judges may now impose a jail term of between 30 and 40 years, while male offenders below 50 years of age are liable to be flogged a minimum of 12 times.

Paul proposed a minimum jail term as Firdaus was only 18 years and four months old when the crime was committed.

Noorhisham suggested a jail term of between 35 and 40 years.

In 2018, Firdaus and his girlfriend, Nur Fatihah Saqira Tahir, were found guilty of Azzad’s murder which took place between 11.30pm on Dec 31, 2014, and 1am on Jan 1, 2015, near a sewage plant in Bandar Baru Merlimau Utara, Jasin.

However, Nur Fatihah won her appeal at the Court of Appeal in 2022.

According to the facts of the case, Nur Fatihah was in a relationship with Azzad since she was in Form 3, but the pair drifted apart after she enrolled into a higher learning institution in Melaka.

Azzad is said to have threatened to make public some intimate photographs of Nur Fatihah and himself that were stored in a mobile phone.

On the night of the murder, Azzad travelled from Perak to surprise Nur Fatihah, who was already in a relationship with Firdaus.

Nur Fatihah called Azzad and lured him into going to the crime scene, where Firdaus repeatedly stabbed him with a knife.

The body was dumped into a ravine before it was discovered by the public.

The post-mortem report revealed that Azzad died due to an incision on his neck. - FMT