Sept 5 case management for appeal against acquittal of trio in Cradle Fund CEO case

The prosecution's appeal against the acquittal of Samirah Muzaffar and two teenagers from the charge of murdering Cradle Fund CEO Nazrin Hassan has been set for case management on Monday.

Rahmat Mohamed Hazlan, one of their lawyers, confirmed that the case management on Sept 5 would be conducted online before a Court of Appeal deputy registrar.

On June 21, this year, the Shah Alam High Court acquitted and discharged Samirah, 47, who is Nazrin's widow, and the two teenagers aged 19 and 16, after finding that the prosecution had failed to establish a prima facie case against them.

High Court judge Ab Karim Ab Rahman held that there was no direct evidence to show that they had committed the offence.

He said the fact that they had been the last people to be with Nazrin could not be said to have led to his murder. 

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 11.30pm on June 13, 2018 and 4am the following day.

On June 23, the Attorney-General's Chambers filed a notice of appeal against the High Court's decision to acquit Samirah and the teenagers of the murder charge. 

Meanwhile, on June 30, Samirah and the teenagers also filed an appeal to challenge some of the High Court's findings of facts including the finding that the fire which broke out in Nazrin's room was "done deliberately". 

The High Court judge, in his oral judgment, had said that the court accepted the testimonies of the Kuala Lumpur Fire and Rescue Department director Edwin Galan Teruki and investigating officer Halim Zulkefeli, in which they concluded that the fire was deliberately lit.