Samirah, two teens freed of Cradle Fund CEO's murder charge

SHAH ALAM: The High Court here today acquitted and discharged Samirah Muzaffar and two teenagers from the charge of murdering Cradle Fund chief executive officer Nazrin Hassan four years ago.

Judge Ab Karim Ab Rahman made the decision after finding that the prosecution had failed to establish a prima facie case at the end of the prosecution case against the trio.

He said the court found that the situation at that time did not show the conduct of the accused and the two children (now aged 19 and 16) had inflicted injuries which resulted in the death of the victim.

He also said that the prosecution failed to prove that there was a murder at the time alleged in the charge.

"The court found that the prosecution failed to prove a prima facie case against the accused (Samirah) and child 1 and child 2. Therefore, the accused, child 1 and child 2 are acquitted and discharged from the murder charge," he said.

Samirah and the two teenagers, as well as an Indonesian woman, Eka Wahyu Lestari, who is still at large, were charged with murdering Nazrin, 45, at his house in Mutiara Damansara, between 11.30 pm on June 13, 2018, and 4 am the following day.

The prosecution closed its case last Feb 14 after calling 57 witnesses.

The hearing on the case began on Sept 6, 2019.

The prosecution was conducted by deputy public prosecutors Mohd Asnawi Abu Hanipah, Tengku Intan Suraya Tengku Ismail and Nur Sabrina Zubairi while the defence team consisted of lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, Rahmat Hazlan, LS. Leonard, S. Suresh, Savreena Kaur and Zahria Eleena Redza.

-- BERNAMA