Tears flowed freely in the High Court today at the hearing of two juveniles charged with murder for the death of 23 inmates in a fire at a tahfiz centre in Datuk Keramat here last year.

This is as mothers of four of the victims were called to identify the pictures of their respective sons.

Deputy public prosecutor Nurakmal Farhan Aziz, asked the four women – unemployed Khairunnisaa’ Khairuddin, 33; teacher Mazzaini Muda, 48; Rien Erliana Marjuni, 50, who is a clerk at the Indonesian Embassy and Emmi Farizah Abd Aziz, 38, a cashier at Jakel Trading – who are the 29th, 30th, 31st and 32nd prosecution witnesses, respectively, to identify pictures of their sons taken when the children were alive.

Khairunnisaa’ lost her six-year-old son Umar Al-Khattab in the fire, while Mazzaini lost her 13-year-old son Ahmad Rijal Mohammad Rodzi.

Rien Erliana lost her son Muhammad Taufiq Hidayat, 16, while Emmi Farizah lost two sons, Azkar Abidi, 11, and Azkar Darimi, 8.

During re-examination by the prosecution, the four women were called separately into the trial room and showed the photographs of their sons.

The mothers looked calm at first, but were lost for words and began wiping their tears when looking at the pictures.

Questioned by Nurakmal Farhan about when she found out about the fire, Khairunnisaa’ said she was informed at 6.30am on Sept 14, 2017, by a friend of her husband, whose son was also a student at the centre.

As for Mazzaini, she said she knew about it after reading a message in a Whatsapp group formed for parents of centre’s students.

Rien Erliana said she knew about it from her oldest son.

“My oldest child was watching the 7am news on TV3 and said ‘Mama, tahfiz Taufiq (Muhammad Taufiq Hidayat) is on fire,”, she said, adding that she immediately called her ex-husband who confirmed it.

Meanwhile, Emmi Farizah said she got the news from her sister, who also sent her son to the same tahfiz centre.

All four women said that after knowing about the fire, they went to the centre and were then asked to go to the Forensic Department at the Kuala Lumpur Hospital to identify the bodies and give their blood samples.

Two boys, who were then aged 16, were jointly charged with the murder and causing the death of the 23 people at the Pusat Tahfiz Darul Ittifaqiyah in Jalan Keramat Hujung, Kampung Datuk Keramat in Kuala Lumpur between 4.15am and 6.45 am on Sept 14, 2017.

They were charged under Section 302 of the Penal Code, read together with Section 34 of the same law, and faced the mandatory death sentence, if found guilty.

However Section 97(1) of the Child Act 2001 states that a death sentence shall not be pronounced or recorded against a child under the age of 18, and in lieu of the death sentence, as provided under Section 97 (2) of the same law, the court shall order the person to be detained at the pleasure of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong.

The hearing before judge Azman Abdullah continues on Friday.

— Bernama