PUTRAJAYA, Feb 18 — The Federal Court was told today that the conviction and the death sentence imposed on six former National Defence University of Malaysia (UPNM) students for the murder of Royal Malaysian Navy cadet officer Zulfarhan Osman Zulkarnain is unsafe and should be set aside.
The six former students are Muhammad Akmal Zuhairi Azmal, Muhammad Azamuddin Mad Sofi, Muhammad Najib Mohd Razi, Muhammad Afif Najmudin Azahat, Mohamad Shobirin Sabri, and Abdoul Hakeem Mohd Ali.
Lawyer Datuk Hisyam Teh Poh Teik, who represented Najib, submitted that on the evidence adduced against the third appellant, there was no prima facie case for an offence under Section 304 (a) of the Penal Code, let alone murder.
He said the High Court was in error to rely on the evidence of the 27th prosecution witness (PW27), who was the owner of the iron.
"Nowhere in the evidence did PW27 say he saw the third appellant ‘iron’ the deceased (Zulfarhan). This erroneous finding had prejudiced my client.
"This is an appealable error," Hisyam said during the six former students' appeal against the conviction and the death sentence by the Court of Appeal.
He added that both the High Court and the Court of Appeal should treat former UPNM students — PW24 Ahmad Senabil Mohamad and PW25 Mohd Syafiq Abdullah — as credible witnesses, but argued that the High Court did not undertake a maximum evaluation of their evidence.
"Had it done so, the High Court would have found that their evidence lacked credibility. The Court of Appeal committed the same error.
"PW24 was arrested and remanded for 14 days for causing the death of the deceased and he gave evidence against the other arrestees to save his own skin," Hisyam said, praying that his client be acquitted and discharged by the Apex Court.
Meanwhile, lawyer Amer Hamzah Arshad, representing Akmal and Azamudin, submitted that the prosecution failed to meet the required standard to secure the conviction of both the appellants for the offence of murder.
He contended that the evidence of the 19th defence witness (SD19) Dr Rohayu Shahar Adnan regarding the degree of probability of death from severe burn injuries or alternative causes of death had clearly raised a reasonable doubt against the prosecution’s case.
"As such, taken cumulatively, the expert evidence of PW6 Dr Salmah Arshad is not conclusive and the evidence led by the prosecution does not meet the offence of murder.
"In her testimony and the post-mortem report, PW6 concluded that the cause of death was due to severe burn injuries," Amer said.
Meanwhile, counsel Datuk Mohd Zamri Mohd Idrus, representing Abdoul Hakeem, said the deceased could have succumbed to the Steven Johnson syndrome where the death was the result of an anti-biotic prescribed by a doctor.
The trial before a three-member panel of judges, chaired by Chief Judge of Malaya Datuk Seri Hasnah Mohammed Hashim with Federal Court judges Datuk Nordin Hassan dan Datuk Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil, will resume next Friday (February 28).
On July 23 last year, the Court of Appeal imposed the death penalty on six former UPNM students for Zulfarhan's murder after allowing the prosecution’s cross-appeal to reinstate their initial murder charge under Section 302 of the Penal Code.
On November 2, 2021, the High Court sentenced all six accused to 18 years in prison after finding them guilty under Section 304 (a) of the Penal Code for causing Zulfarhan’s death without intent to kill him.
The former students, now aged 29, were accused of committing the offence in a room at the Asrama Jebat block of UPNM in Serdang, between 4.45am and 5.45am on May 22, 2017. Zulfarhan died at the Serdang Hospital on June 1, 2017.
— Bernama
