PUTRAJAYA: The Federal Court here today commuted the death sentence of a former storekeeper to 30 years in jail for strangling his girlfriend with her headscarf almost 16 years ago.
Shahrul Nizam Mohd Shah’s application for a review of his death sentence under the Revision of Sentence of Death and Imprisonment for Natural Life (Temporary Jurisdiction of the Federal Court) Act 2023 was granted today by a three-member panel, including Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, Federal Court judge Datuk Nordin Hassan and Datuk Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera.
Justice Tengku Maimun, who delivered the court’s decision, set aside the death sentence and substituted it with a 30-year jail term.
She ordered Shahrul Nizam to serve the sentence starting from the date of his arrest on Oct 8, 2008.
Shahrul Nizam, 51, was found guilty by the High Court in Shah Alam in 2010 for killing his colleague, Nurul Hazira Bharum, 26. He committed the crime after learning that she was going to marry another man.
The offence was committed at his rented house in Kampung Gombak in Kuang, Rawang, Selangor between 9 am and 10 am on Oct 7, 2008.
His appeals were dismissed by the Court of Appeal and Federal Court in 2012 and 2015 respectively.
In his defence, Shahrul Nizam told the High Court that he and Nurul Hazira, a clerk, had planned to commit suicide by drinking poison “like Romeo and Juliet,” claiming that Nurul Hazira forced him to drink the poison first causing him pass out.
Shahrul Nizam said that when he woke up, Nurul Hazira was already dead, and he ran to a neighbour’s house for help. He claimed that Nurul Hazira had confided in him, saying she was not in love with the man who proposed to her and instead asked Shahrul Nizam to marry her. However, he wanted her to wait as he had no money.
A post-mortem report revealed that Nurul Hazira died of suffocation due to strangulation and that no poison was found in her body.
His lawyer Subash Ramasamy requested the court to set aside the death sentence and substitute it with a 30-year jail term. Deputy public prosecutor Tetralina Ahmed Fauzi did not object to the application.
