2, including child offender, lose final appeal for murder

 

The court was told that the duo had gone to a woman’s house to rob her, but she was later found dead with stab wounds.

PUTRAJAYA: Two men who murdered a businesswoman seven years ago today failed in their final appeal to set aside their convictions.

One of them was considered a child offender at the time of the murder while the other was a youth.

A three-member Federal Court bench chaired by judge Rohana Yusuf confirmed the death penalty imposed on the second accused, A Nagarujun, now 26.

The court said the other man, who was 16 years and nine months old at the time, would be detained at the pleasure of the Perak ruler as required under the Child Act and the Criminal Procedure Code.

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Rohana said the bench was satisfied that the convictions by the trial judge were safe and that this had been affirmed by the Court of Appeal.

She said the High Court was also correct to admit a cautioned statement under the Evidence Act after a prosecution witness had gone missing.

She said there was also other credible evidence, such as the fingerprint of the child offender at the crime scene and the victim’s blood stains on his clothes.

“The prosecution had proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt,” said Rohana, who sat with Harmindar Singh Dhaliwal and Zabidin Diah.

The two had been found guilty of killing Izzah Abdullah, 52, at her house in Taman Tanjong Emas, near Ipoh, on Feb 11, 2015.

The facts of the case showed that they had gone to Izzah’s house with the intention of robbing her. She was later found dead with multiple stab wounds.

The prosecution relied on circumstantial evidence as there were no witnesses.

Lawyer Naran Singh appeared for the child offender, while Geethan Ram Vincent and S Revin Kumar represented Nagarujun. Deputy public prosecutor Eyu Ghim Siang prosecuted.

In a separate case, the same bench dismissed an appeal by a tofu seller convicted on two counts of trafficking in a total of 72kg of cannabis at a house in Johor Bahru five years ago.

Rohana said there was no merit in Sahrul Mazlee Khalid’s appeal as the trial judge had sufficiently considered the prosecution and the defence cases before making a finding of guilt.

Mazlee, 46, was found in possession of the cannabis at a house in Taman Biru on Feb 19, 2017.

Deputy public prosecutors Parvin Hameedah Natchiar and Zaki Azyraf Zubir appeared for the prosecution, while lawyers Anita Vijaya Rajah and V Ramesh represented Mazlee. - FMT