Court to hear teen’s appeal against tahfiz fire murder conviction

 

Twenty-one students and two teachers were killed in the fire at Pusat Tahfiz Darul Quran Ittifaqiyah in Kampung Datuk Keramat, Kuala Lumpur on Sept 14, 2017.

PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal has set March 9 to hear an appeal by a teenager, currently being detained at the pleasure of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong after he was found guilty of causing the death of 23 people in a fire at Pusat Tahfiz Darul Quran Ittifaqiyah five years ago.

The teenager’s lawyer, Haijan Omar, said the prosecution’s appeal against the High Court’s decision to acquit and discharge another teenager charged with committing the same offence will also be heard on the same date.

The court also fixed Feb 23 for case management, Haijan said.

The teenager, who is now 21, is appealing against the High Court’s verdict on Aug 17, 2020, ordering him to be detained at the pleasure of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong after finding him guilty of murder.

High Court judge Azman Abdullah found that the teenager, who was 16 at the time, had intentionally committed mischief to cause death.

The teenager, together with another unidentified individual, was accused of murdering 23 people staying at the tahfiz centre at Jalan Keramat Hujung in Kampung Datuk Keramat, Wangsa Maju here, between 4.15am and 6.45am on Sept 14, 2017.

He was charged with 23 counts of murder, each framed under Section 302 of the Penal Code and read together with Section 34 of the same law, which provides for the mandatory death sentence upon conviction.

However, Section 97(1) of the Child Act 2001 stipulates that a death sentence shall not be pronounced or recorded against a person convicted of an offence if the child is under the age of 18, and in lieu of the death sentence, as provided under Section 97(2) of the same law, the court shall order the person to be detained at the pleasure of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong.

A total of 71 witnesses testified for the prosecution in the trial which started on May 30, 2018.

The teenager, in his defence, denied that he was in the tahfiz compound at the time of the incident.

In the tragedy, 21 students and two teachers were killed when they were trapped on the third floor of the school hostel. - FMT