THE Federal Court on Wednesday confirmed the acquittal of Samirah Muzaffar and two teenagers in the murder of Cradle Fund chief executive officer Nazrin Hassan, decisively rejecting the prosecution’s final attempt to revive the case eight years after the killing.
A three-judge panel chaired by Court of Appeal President Datuk Abu Bakar Jais unanimously dismissed the prosecution’s appeal, affirming the earlier ruling of the Court of Appeal that cleared Samirah and the two youths of the murder charge.
The panel also comprised Datuk Rhodzariah Bujang and Datuk Nordin Hassan.
The decision upholds the judgment delivered on 8 February 2024, when the Court of Appeal agreed with the Shah Alam High Court that Samirah, now 51 and the widow of Nazrin, and the two accused youths, now aged 20 and 23, should be acquitted and discharged without their defence being called.
Samirah and the two teenagers had been jointly charged with an Indonesian national, Eka Wahyu Lestari, who remains at large, over the death of Nazrin, 45.
The charge alleged that Nazrin was murdered at his home in Mutiara Damansara between 11.30 pm on 13 June 2018 and 4 am the following day.
With the Federal Court’s ruling, the acquittal of Samirah and the two youths is now final, effectively closing one of Malaysia’s most closely followed criminal cases in recent years, while investigations involving the remaining accused continue separately. - January 7, 2025
