Wife, underage boys charged with murder of Cradle Fund CEO
The wife of late Cradle Fund CEO Nazrin Hassan, Samirah Muzaffar, and two underage boys were charged with his murder at the Petaling Jaya Magistrates Court this afternoon.
Samirah, 43, and the boys aged 13 and 16, were accused of committing the offence at a house in Damansara, Petaling Jaya, between 11.30pm on June 13 and 4am on June 14 last year...
The wife of late Cradle Fund CEO Nazrin Hassan (above), Samirah Muzaffar, and two underage boys were charged with his murder at the Petaling Jaya Magistrates Court this afternoon.
Samirah, 43, and the boys aged 13 and 16, were accused of committing the offence at a house in Damansara, Petaling Jaya, between 11.30pm on June 13 and 4am on June 14 last year.
They were charged under Section 302 of the Penal Code for murder, together with an Indonesian national identified as Eka Wahyu Lestari – who is still at large – before magistrate Mohamad Ikhwan Mohd Nasir.
The charge was read together with Section 34 of the Penal Code, which stipulates that "when a criminal act is done by several persons, in furtherance of the common intention of all, each of such persons is liable for that act in the same manner as if the act were done by him alone."
All three, including the boys clad in school uniforms, agreed that they understood the charge read against them.
No plea was recorded from any of the accused.
The magistrate then ordered for the case to be immediately transferred to the High Court, following a request made by deputy public prosecutor Jamil Aripin, who led the prosecution team.
Ikhwan also issued an order against the media from naming the underage boys or publishing anything that could lead to their identification, including their addresses and taking their photographs.
Also present at the court were Samirah's father, Chandra Muzaffar, and family members of Nazrin and the boys.
Meanwhile, according to defence counsel Mahindarjit Singh, Samirah and the teenagers will remain in custody until the case is heard in the High Court.
He said they are waiting for the prosecution to tender the charge at the High Court, after which the court would fix a date for the case to be mentioned there.
"Once that is done, a formal charge will be preferred and a plea will be taken," he told Malaysiakini.
"Yes, for now, they are under custody."
When asked if there would be any chance for the boys to get bail since murder is an unbailable offence, Mahindarjit said they "are working on it".
It was reported that Nazrin died on June 14, and the case was claimed to be smoke inhalation after a fire broke out at his Mutiara Damansara home.
According to Petaling Jaya police chief Mohd Zani Che Din, the 48-year-old was found dead in his smoke-filled master bedroom and had suffered 30 percent burns.
Nazrin's company, Cradle Fund Sdn Bhd, then issued a statement that he had died from injuries sustained when a mobile phone exploded while it was being charged.
The company is an early stage influencer and funder for tech start-up companies.
It noted that the post-mortem report identified the cause of death as complications resulting from "blast injuries attributable to an exploding handphone that was being charged next to him."
This followed a message from the family that circulated on social media claiming that Nazrin's phone had overheated and exploded, causing blunt trauma to the back of his head.
However, the police reclassified the case as murder after Fire and Rescue Services Department investigators found traces of petrol in the bedroom.
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