The Court of Appeal today reserved its judgment in the appeal by aircraft cabin cleaner supervisor Ahmad Najib Aris against his conviction for the rape and murder of IT analyst Canny Ong Lay Kian.

According to Bernama , Justices Abdul Aziz Mohamed, Mohd Ghazali Mohd Yusof and Azmel Ma'amor will give their decision in the appeal on a date to be fixed later as they wanted to verify various matters raised in the submissions by Ahmad Najib's counsel Muhammad Haniff Khatri Abdulla and DPP Salehuddin Saidin.

The quorum took four days to hear the appeal.

Ahmad Najib, 31, was sentenced to death by the Shah Alam High Court on Feb 23 last year for murdering Canny, 29 at 7th mile, Jalan Klang Lama between 1 am and 5 am on June 14, 2003.

He was also sentenced to 20 years jail and 10 strokes of rotan after he was found guilty of raping Canny at the same time, day and place.

Canny's charred remains were found buried under two-cement-filled tyres in a hole measuring 3x3x3 ft with her hands across her chest and her legs sticking out.

The case had received widespread media coverage then.

The prosecution had led evidence in the trial that Ong ( right ) was abducted at the basement car park of BSC when she went there to get the parking ticket she left in her car to pay at the autopay machine.

The court also heard evidence that several witnesses had seen him together with her in several places before her death and also evidence from witnesses who saw her in a distress condition, pleading for help using hand signals.

The court had also admitted as evidence Ahmad Najib's confession to a magistrate. He confessed to killing Ong after having sex with her, which he believed was consented as she did not show any anger or cried.

Ahmad Najib was ordered to make his defence at the end of the prosecution's case but he opted to remain silent.

Other witnesses

Earlier, the court heard submissions from Salehuddin for about one and half hours and reply from Muhammad Haniff Khatri for two hours.

Salehuddin argued the defence should have called other witnesses to rebut the prosecution's evidence eventhough Ahmad Najib chose to remain silent.

He said Ahmad Najib must answer how his identification card landed in the hands of a policeman and how he was seen in three different places.

To a question by Justice Abdul Aziz on Muhammad Haniff Khatri's argument that the magistrate should immediately stop recording the confession from Ahmad Najib once he noticed signs of involuntariness, Salehuddin said the magistrate was not in any stage doubtful that his confession was given involuntarily.

He said the magistrate had put several questions to him to determine his voluntariness and when Ahmad Najib's answer was unclear, the magistrate had reminded him (Ahmad Najib) that he did not have to give his confession if he did not want to.

Salehuddin, however, said Ahmad Najib still insisted that he wanted to give his confession.

The court also looked at one of the exhibits in the case, the cement-filled tyres in which Ong's remains were buried under.

The defence had contended that the cement-filled tyres were too heavy for a person with Ahmad Najib's build to carry and suggested possibilities that there were more than one person involved in the murder.

Muhammad Haniff Khatri in his reply, submitted that Ahmad Najib's confession was inadmissible as he gave it under duress.

He said without the confession, the prosecution could not make an inference on the mens rea (mental state of mind) of Ahmad Najib at the time he committed the act.

"They do not have any circumstantial evidence which can be tied strong enough to convict Ahmad Najib," he added

Ahmad Najib is being remanded in the Sungai Buloh prison.