The prosecution today gave 70 reasons why the Court of Appeal should dismiss the appeal of former aircraft cabin cleaner Ahmad Najib Aris against his conviction for the murder and rape of US-based IT analyst Canny Ong.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Salahuddin Saidin said the death sentence imposed against Ahmad Najib for the crimes must be affirmed as the evidence - which are circumstantial in nature - corroborated each other perfectly that it leads to only one conclusion.

"The evidence the prosecution presented at the trial stage overwhelming supported each other and the cumulative effect only points to one direction: that the appellant is guilty of the murder and rape of Canny Ong," he submitted.

At this point, Justice Abdul Aziz Mohamad - who is hearing the appeal with Justices Mohd Ghazali Mohd Yusoff and Azmel Ma'amor - then asked if the 70 evidence significantly include Ahmad Najib's confession credibility had been challenged by his lawyers.

"Yes they include the confession given by the appellant. This is because it corroborates the other evidence. The confession covers about three or four points which means we still have 66 or 67 circumstantial evidence that can nail the appellant as the culprit," replied Salahuddin.

On Feb 23 last year, the Shah Alam High Court sentenced Ahmad Najib to death for raping and murdering Canny, 29 at Km11 of Jalan Kelang Lama between 1am and 5am on June 14, 2003.

Najib appeared calm throughout the appeal and was busy reading a book as he was seated in the dock together with a prison warden.

Although he appeared expressionless most of the time, he was seen laughing softly and shaking his hands as if he was "amused" by Salahuddin's submissions.

Familiar places

In his submissions, Salahuddin said among the 70 reasons stated were the evidence of L/Cpl S Ravichandran who testified that he saw a Malay man with a Chinese woman when he approached a car that was parked beside a quiet road in Taman Perindustrian Jaya near the Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah Airport at 11.30pm on June 24, 2003.

"We submit that this is an act of criminals who always take their victims to places familiar to them. The road is new to the Subang Airport where the appellant works as a airline cabin cleaner," said Salahuddin.

He said Ravichandran also positively identified the couple as Ahmad Najib and Canny and that the identification cannot be challenged because the policeman had shone a torch light at the two that night.

Other evidence include that of Azizan Ismail who identified Ahmad Najib as the person he chanced upon in a dark blue Proton Tiara with a semi-naked fair-skinned woman lying at the back seat parked along Jalan Kelang Lama about 1.30am on June 14, 2003.

The witness also saw the same vehicle parked on the opposite side of the road three hours later.

Aziza's testified that he had stopped there at that time to ease himself and look for a piece of wood to repair a damaged seat of his van and the evidence was consistent with Ahmad Najib's confession which stated that he had seen a man carrying a piece of wood while he parked the car by the road.

He said that the witness' testimony of seeing a woman at the back of the car was consistent with the finding of bloodstains which was confirmed by chemist Primulapathi Jaya Krishnan that positively tested as that of Canny's.

Disposed body by burning

Other evidence which pointed to Ahmad Najib as Canny's rapist and murderer include:

- The identification of two strains of hair found from Ahmad Najib's blue sweater as belonging to Canny.

- The identification of blood stain found on a pair of jeans recovered at the appellant's home as belonging to Canny

- The muslim cloth found on Canny's body (used to tie her hands) was consistent with the type used by Ahmad Najib's employer that can only be supplied by certain manufacturer

- A vagina swab of the deceased showed presence of semen which proved by DNA as belonging to the appellant

"How could the blood of the deceased be on the pants of the appelant if he was not with her that night?

"It is our contention that after raping the deceased, for fear that she would identify her, he killed her by strangulation and disposed her body by burning it," Salahuddin submitted.

The appeal continues tomorrow.