By Hidir Reduan Abdul Rashid | Malaysiakini
Six former Universiti Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia (UPNM) students were sentenced to death over the murder of navy cadet Zulfarhan Osman Zulkarnain seven years ago.
A three-person Court of Appeal bench today unanimously found the six ex-students guilty of murder, setting aside their initial conviction for the offence of causing death with no intent to kill.
The bench chaired by Hadhariah Syed Ismail ruled that the initial 18-year jail sentence was insufficient due to the viciousness of the crime.
On June 1, 2017 at Serdang Hospital, Zulfarhan died of injuries from 90 instances of steam ironing, which left scalding burns on 80 percent of his body.
The 21-year-old was allegedly subjected to multiple assaults over his refusal to confess to stealing a laptop of one of the six ex-students, at the public university’s dorm in Kuala Lumpur between May 21 and 22 that year.
The six were Muhammad Akmal Zuhairi Azmal, Muhammad Azamuddin Mad Sofi, Muhammad Najib Mohd Razi, Muhammad Afif Najmudin Azahat, Mohamad Shobirin Sabri, and Abdoul Hakeem Mohd Ali.
Malicious, evil intent
In reading out the judgment for over three hours, Hadhariah said that the High Court erred in finding the six only guilty of causing death.
She said the grievous injury on the deceased’s body indicated intent to murder on the part of the six former students.
Hadhariah said the six took turns to repeatedly apply a hot steam iron on the deceased’s back, front, and private parts.
She said they had malicious and evil intent and were inhumane as well as lacked compassion for a fellow student.
She noted that the act not only shocked the judicial conscience but also the collective conscience of society.
“It is the rarest of the rare (crime). Which parents would not be disappointed and sad when their son’s body is returned to them (in the grievously injured state) for burial?
“Only Allah knows how devastated and heavy their feelings are when they see what has happened to their son as caused by the accused.
“The court will not tolerate this situation where parents were forced to endure the sight of their beloved child being tortured to death in a gruesome manner,” Hadhariah spoke on behalf of bench member judges Mohamed Zaini Mazlan and Azmi Ariffin.
She pointed out that in spite of the abolishment of the mandatory death penalty via a parliamentary enactment last year, the appeal court found only the death sentence appropriate against the six former students.
Hadhariah said this is because Zulfarhan was an innocent victim whose hands and feet were tied before he was subjected to multiple beatings by multiple attackers as well as the hot steam iron.
“Despite the six accused seeing and witnessing the deceased in deep pain, they closed their eyes without a care and continued to apply the steam iron on nearly every part of his body, causing 90 scalding burns.
“Despite the six accused hearing the deceased repeatedly shouting in pain, they deafened their ears and continued to apply the steam iron,” she said.
She noted that the six accused even hid the victim to prevent their criminal acts from being discovered by UPNM management, causing a delay in sending him to Serdang Hospital for treatment.
Hadhariah said the six failed to bring the victim for immediate treatment to a hospital despite being advised by his female friend to do so.
Death sentence appropriate
The judge then directed all six former students to stand up in the dock before pronouncing the death penalty.
“Therefore we unanimously order that there is one appropriate sentence for all six accused — they are to be brought to a place to be hanged to death.
“Their initial 18-year jail sentence is set aside and substituted with the death penalty,” Hadhariah said.
Outside the appellate court later today, Zulfarhan’s parents were seen falling to the floor, thanking God for the verdict.
When met by the media, lawyers Amer Hamzah Arshad and Hisyam Teh Poh Teik, who act for some of the accused, said they would be appealing to the Federal Court.
Now 28 years old, the six former students were initially charged with murder under section 302 of the Penal Code, which carries the death penalty.
Five of them were charged with committing the murder while the sixth accused was charged with abetting the murder.
However, on Nov 2, 2021, the Kuala Lumpur High Court found the six guilty under section 304(a) of the code for causing Zulfarhan’s death with no intent to kill and imposed an 18-year jail sentence.
Longer jail sentence
In the same appellate proceedings, Hadhariah also ordered the increase of the jail sentence against 12 other former UPNM students for causing injury to Zulfarhan, from three years to four years.
They are:
Mohd Hafiz Fauzan Ismail
Mohamad Lukhmanul Hakim Mohd Zain
Ahmad Shafwan Berdal
Muhammad Amirul Asraff Mala
Luqman Hakim Shamsuri
Muhammad Sufi Mohd Mustapha
Noriznan Izzairi Noor Azhar
Muhamad Ashraf Abdullah
Muhammad Danial Firdaus Azmir
Muhammad Hasif
Muhammad Adib Iman
Mohamad Syazwan
The 12 former students were appealing against their conviction under section 330 of the code for injuring the deceased, as well as their three-year jail sentence.
With no stay order granted by the appellate court pending the disposal of the appeal at the apex court, the 12 ex-UPNM students began serving their custodial sentence today.
