KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court here today fixed July 8 to hear submissions at the end of the prosecution case involving 19 National Defence University of Malaysia (UPNM) students who were charged with murdering and injuring their varsity mate cadet officer Zulfarhan Osman Zulkarnain (pix).
Judge Datuk Azman Abdullah set the date after deputy public prosecutor Julia Ibrahim informed the court that both parties (prosecution and defence) have yet to examine the contents of the documents relating to the case.
“The deputy public prosecutor (Othman Abdullah) who was conducting the case earlier retired recently.
“I have just received some documents related to the trial today. So I need time to study some of the documents,“ she said today after mention of the case.
In today’s proceedings, the lawyers representing the accused were Amer Hamzah Arshad, Datuk Ranjit Singh Dhillon, A.G. Kalidas, Datuk Hazizah Kassim, Datuk Seri M. Ramachelvam, Azizul Shariman and Zamri Idrus.
Six UPNM students, namely Muhammad Akmal Zuhairi, Muhammad Azamuddin, Muhammad Najib Mohd Razi, Muhammad Afif Najmudin Azahat, Mohamad Shobirin Sabri and Abdoul Hakeem Mohd Ali pleaded not guilty to murdering and abetting the murder of Zulfarhan Osman at room number 04-10 of the Jebat Hostel in UPNM between 4.45am and 5.45am on May 22, 2017.
The charges against all of them, aged 22, were made under Sections 302 and 109 of the Penal Code, which carry the mandatory death sentence upon conviction.
The six along with 13 other accused were also charged with voluntarily causing hurt to extort a confession from the victim, under Section 330 of the Penal Code read together with Section 34 of the same code which provides for a maximum jail term of seven years and a fine upon conviction.
Zulfarhan Osman died at the Serdang Hospital on June 1, 2017, believed to have been abused after being accused of stealing his friend’s laptop.
The victim was reported to have suffered from burns on the chest, arms and legs believed to have been tortured with a steam iron. — Bernama
