Two teenagers plead not guilty to murdering 23 at religious school

KUALA LUMPUR: Two 16-year-old boys pleaded not guilty at the High Court here to charges of murdering 21 students and two teachers of Darul Quran Ittifaqiyah tahfiz in September last year.

The 23 charges were read out to the duo, clad in white pants and T-shirts, by the court interpreter before Justice Datuk Azman Abdullah on Tuesday (Jan 29).

They were jointly charged with murdering and causing the death of 23 occupants of the tahfiz's hostel located in Kampung Datuk Keramat here between 4.15 am and 6.45 am on Sept 14, 2017.

The charge, under Section 302 of the Penal Code, provides for a mandatory death penalty upon conviction.

Earlier, Justice Azman reminded members of the media covering the trial not to disclose the identity and personal information of the two accused as they were juveniles.

Kuala Lumpur prosecution director Othman Abdullah and deputy public prosecutor Nurakmal Farhan Aziz prosecuted, while the two teenagers were represented by counsel Michelle Ng.

Lawyer Ariff Azami Hussein held a watching brief for the tahfiz and some of the victims' families.

Nurakmal Farhan also submitted an initial objection to the court to have lawyers from Messrs Gobind Singh Deo excluded or prohibited from representing both the accused.

"Any lawyer or legal officer from the law firm should be excluded or prohibited from representing both the accused on the grounds that the firm is already representing two other accused in the trial at the magistrate's court, and that the two accused would also appear as the key witnesses in this case.

"This is because the defence already has access to what will be used during the trial," he said.

Ng requested the court to set another date to enable the defence to seek further instructions from the firm as they had not received any notification on the matter.

The court set Feb 19 for re-mention. – Bernama