Who is Mona Fandey?

Colourful: Mona was fashionable and smiley all the way during the trial up to her sentencing.

Real name: Maznah Ismail. She also claimed to be Tengku Rohani Tengku Abdullah, which hinted of royal status although this was trounced by the prosecution during the trial.

Age at death: 45 (hanged on Nov 2, 2001)

Background: Born in Kangar, Perlis, and was a recording artiste with an album entitled Diana 1 released in 1987. Mona was known for the song Ku Nyanyikan Lagu Ini. However, she switched to the traditional medicine practice not long after.

Profession: Bomoh (widely believed).

Spouse: Mohd Affandi Abdul Rahman, a fellow bomoh.

Why she’s famous: Mona was tried and convicted, together with Affandi, 43 (when he was executed) and their assistant Juraimi Husin, 31, for the murder of Batu Talam state assemblyman Datuk Mazlan Idris between July 2 and 8, 1993, in an unnumbered house in Kampung Peruas, Ulu Dong, about 35km from Raub. Mazlan had been missing for awhile before he was found not only dead but his remains chopped into 18 parts and buried 1.8m beneath the storeroom of the house on July 22, 1993.

The trial, which began in September 1994, ran for five months with the prosecution calling 59 witnesses and the defence, seven.

What happened afterwards? All three appealed to the Court of Appeal in 1997 and the Federal Court two years later but all were rejected. After the Pardons Board dismissed their last appeal, they were executed on Nov 2, 2001, at the Kajang Prison.

Interesting bits: The bomoh couple offered to sell to Mazlan three mystical items which would apparently make the politician invincible in exchange for RM2.5mil. Mazlan was said to have paid RM500,000 and handed over 10 land titles as guarantee for the remaining payment.

Later, it was arranged for Mazlan to visit the couple’s house in Ulu Dong, Raub, for a mandi bunga ceremony but he ended up being murdered and his body mutilated.

After the murder, the couple left for Kuala Lumpur and bought a Mercedes Benz, went on a shopping spree and Mona even got a facelift.

Not long after the murder, Juraimi was picked up for a drug offence but he confessed to the police that he had been involved in Mazlan’s murder. He led police to the crime scene and the couple was arrested not long after that.

Trivia: The Mona Fandey case was the last jury trial in Malaysia and the last involving a preliminary inquiry.

In 2002, film director Amir Muhammad made a short film entitled Mona in his 6horts series. Four years later, a film by Dain Iskandar Said entitled Dukun was widely believed to be based on Mona. The screening of this film was shelved for 11 years before being released recently.