Two juveniles charged with Cradle Fund CEO’s murder granted bail

SHAH ALAM: Two male juveniles who were charged with the murder Cradle Fund Sdn Bhd (Cradle Fund) chief executive officer, Nazrin Jassan in June last year were allowed bail at RM50,000 in two sureties each.

High Court Judge Datuk Ab Karim Ab Rahman in his decision, said it was based on his evaluation, courts had allowed bail for accused in many murder cases and it was not an extraordinary practice.

“The court had allowed a teenager charged with murdering his tuition teacher to go on bail,” he said in his decision.

He said that the boys are presumed innocent of the charge until proven guilty.

In this regard, the judge said the court could not say whether the teenagers would disappear or intimidate the families of witnesses if they were released on bail.

The judge in allowing bail said the court took into consideration the two juveniles were aged below 16 during incident on June 13, 2018.

In setting bail at RM50,000 with two sureties for each of the teenagers, the judge said the guarantors must not be from family members and witnesses of the case.

He also ordered the two teenagers to report to the nearest police station every week.

“Secondly, the two boys should in their respective residences from 6 pm to 6 am,” he said.

Ab Karim said they are not allowed to be at public places except for schooling purposes and they cannot leave their residence without the approval of the court.

He said the teenagers are not allowed to live with their families who have become witnesses in the case and ordered the guarantors to ensure the juveniles do not intimidate prosecution witnesses.

The judge said the teenagers were also ordered to surrender their passports to the court. The two teenagers, aged 14 and 17 were accused with Nazrin’s widow, Samirah Muzaffar, 44, the former senior executive of Property Corporation of Malaysia (MyIPO) who pleaded not guilty to the charge in the High Court on March 12.

Samirah, the two teenagers and an Indonesian Eka Wahyu Lestari who is still at large were accused of murdering Nazrin, 47, in a house at Mutiara Homes near here between 11.30 pm June 13 2018 and 4 am June 14, 2018.

They were charge under Section 302 of the Penal Code, read together with Section 34 of the same code which carries the death penalty upon conviction.

On Oct 1, 2018, the Petaling Jaya Magistrate’s Court allowed an application by police to exhume Nazrin’s body for a second autopsy to assist police investigations into his death.

On Aug 3 last year, Nazrin’s death was reclassified as murder after investigations by the Fire and Rescue Department found traces of petrol at the fire location.

Nazrin was initially reported killed in a fire caused by an explosion of his handphone.

The report of the second post-mortem found Nazrin died of injuries on the head and not from the handphone explosion.

Also present at the trial today was social activist and political analyst Dr Chandra Muzaffar who was on a wheelchair.

Prosecution was conducted by deputy public prosecutor Datuk Jamil Aripin while the teenagers were represented by lawyer Hisyam Teh Poh Teik. - Bernama