KUALA LUMPUR: The Defence Ministry hopes that the National Defence University (UPNM) will ensure the incident involving the death of navy cadet Zulfarhan Osman Zulkarnain does not happen again.

Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin said although the university does not fall under the ministry’s jurisdiction, UPNM is responsible for producing military and civilian graduates to meet the needs of the country’s defence, Bernama reported

“UPNM is the military university where we send cadets to meet the needs of the Malaysian Armed Forces.

“The UPNM campus is located in our area and the vice-chancellor comes from us. Therefore, in this matter, we will give attention and also convey to the university management so they will ensure the incident does not happen in the future,” he said to reporters after launching the Gombak Umno division representative meeting here yesterday.

Last Tuesday, the Court of Appeal imposed the death sentence on six former UPNM students guilty of murdering Zulfarhan seven years ago.

The decision was made by a three-member panel of judges chaired by Justice Hadhariah Syed Ismail, who sat together with Justices Mohamed Zaini Mazlan and Azmi Ariffin, after allowing the prosecution’s cross-appeal to reinstate Section 302 of the Penal Code faced by all the accused previously.

UPNM was established by the Malaysian government on June 21, 2006 under the supervision of the Higher Education Ministry.

Khaled said he believes UPNM has taken appropriate action following this case.

“It happened in 2017, and I believe after that, there haven’t been any other such incidents, which means that the university may have taken appropriate actions,” he added.

https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2024/07/29/mindef-hopes-upnm-will-ensure-no-more-cadet-deaths