PUTRAJAYA (Feb 8): The Court of Appeal on Thursday upheld the acquittal of Samirah Muzaffar and two teenagers for the murder of Cradle Fund Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Nazrin Hassan in 2018.

A three-member appellate bench led by Datuk Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera unanimously upheld the Shah Alam High Court decision in acquitting them and ruled there was no prima facie case for them to enter their defence.

“The bench affirmed the Shah Alam High Court findings and the appeal by the prosecution is dismissed,” said Vazeer who sat together with judges Datuk Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim and Datuk Azahari Kamal Ramli.

Samirah Muzaffar, 48, who is Nazrin’s widow, was charged with the two teenagers who are now 21, and 18, and along with their former Indonesian maid Eka Wahyu Lestari, who is still at large, for killing Nazrin, 45, at his house in Mutiara Damansara between 11.30pm on June 13, 2018, and 4am the following day.

The 18-year-old boy who is currently in the United Kingdom pursuing his studies was present during zoom proceedings.

On June 21, 2022, the Shah Alam High Court judge Datuk Ab Karim Ab Rahman had acquitted the trio without their defence being called.

However, the High Court ruled Nazrin’s death was due to a petrol fire that happened at his home that fateful day.

In allowing the defence appeal over Ab Karim’s finding that Nazrin’s death could have been due to the petrol blast, Vazeer said while the Fire and Rescue Services Department witness testified there were traces of petrol, a finding by the Chemistry Department had proven otherwise.

Vazeer said even the police tracker dogs which were brought in, also did not found traces of petrol that is alleged to have caused the fire.

“The court found that the fire was not staged,” he said.

The appellate bench in dismissing the prosecution’s appeal ruled the High Court made the right decision in acquitting the trio.

Vazeer said there were inconsistent findings by the pathologists who examined Nazrin’s body, as the first pathologist classified the victim’s death as due to blunt force trauma to the head and blast-related injury while the second classified the death due to blunt force trauma.

The judge said the bench could not accept the prosecution’s suggestion that as the trio were the last with the deceased, defence should be called on them to rebut.

“The prosecution failed to establish the crucial element of the offence merely because they were last seen with the deceased that led to the presumption of guilt of the trio. The last seen with the accused is not sufficient to determine and possibly convict the accused if there is nothing connecting them,” he said.

He added that the prosecution also failed to prove any motive in the incident, as it earlier suggested that Samira was having a bad relationship with her husband.

“However, text messages a few days before the incident and other testimonies even from the deceased's sibling in the trial proved otherwise,” Vazeer said.

“The court has combed all the evidence and there is no cogent evidence of motive to kill the deceased,” he added.

Court criticises the prosecution and police

The bench also criticised the prosecution for putting a joint murder charge on all of them including the Indonesian maid.

Samirah, he said, had told investigators that she had sent the maid home due to the death of her mother in Bandung and it was the prosecution’s contention that the maid was sent back to hide the crime.

Furthermore, a search on Eka's Facebook revealed that she was working in a coffee shop in Kuching after that.

“There is no iota of evidence of common intention in the murder of the deceased. Eka’s presence in Kuching was not sought by the authorities in bringing her back. It is as if the police were never serious in pursuing this to bring her to court,” Vazeer said.

“There is no evidence to show all four were culpable for the offence. This is a fatal flaw to the prosecution’s case and to say that the person is still at large is misleading for the prosecution,” the judge added.

For these reasons, the three-member bench upheld the High Court decision to acquit the three.

Samirah and the two teenagers were represented by Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, Rahmat Hazlan and LS Leonard while Deputy Public Prosecutor Datuk Yusaini Amer Abdul Karim led the prosecution.

Shafee: Samirah and children traumatised

After the proceedings, Shafee and Leonard told the court that this was a matter of unfortunate incident but was pursued by the Fire and Rescue Services Department to suggest it was murder, when it should be the police leading the investigation.

Shafee and Leonard said Samirah and the two teenagers were traumatised as a result of the incident as one of the teenagers was sent to a school for juveniles as a result of this.

“Can you imagine how traumatised he is? It is good that he managed to get out and due to his academic results he managed to continue with his studies. For Samirah, can you imagine being accused of murdering her husband and this would impact her if she decides to remarry as she is still young,” Leonard added.

Meanwhile, one of Nazrin’s relatives said they just wanted to know what happened to him.