PUTRAJAYA: The Federal Court has upheld the death sentence of a car cleaner for murdering his female cousin five years ago.
The panel comprising Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat and Federal Court judges Datuk Zabariah Md Yusof and Datuk Harmindar Singh Dhaliwal dismissed Iskandar Zulkarnain Zolkifly’s final appeal against his conviction and death sentence.
Zulkarnain, 31, was appealing against a High Court decision on Oct 4, 2019, in sentencing him to death after finding him guilty of murdering Rabiatul Ain Mohamod, 27, in a house in Jalan Temerloh Makmur 3, Taman Temerloh Makmur, Temerloh, Pahang at 8.30pm on Oct 21, 2017. He lost his appeal at the Court of Appeal which dismissed it on Sept 29 last year.
Based on the evidence, Zulkarnain, who was staying with the deceased and her husband, repeatedly stabbed the woman and even took a break to have a drink in between the stabbings.
In his defence, he claimed he was provoked by the deceased who insulted him for not going to work.
Lawyer K. Viknesvaran represented Zulkarnain, while the deputy public prosecutor was Samihah Rhazali.
Meanwhile, in the same court, a former mobile top-up salesman Ng Kah Fai escaped the gallows when he succeeded in his final appeal to set aside the death sentence imposed on him for the murder of a customer who owed him RM100,000.
Justice Tengku Maimun, who delivered the decision, however, substituted the murder charge against Ng, 47, to one of committing culpable homicide not amounting to murder and sentenced him to 20 years in jail, to begin from Oct 20, 2015, the date of his arrest.
Ng was accused of stabbing Cheng Kok Seong, 41, a businessman, with a knife in a car at a car park in Jalan SS 15/2A, in Subang Jaya, Selangor between 10pm and 11.30pm on Oct 20, 2015.
In his defence in the High Court, Ng did not dispute stabbing the deceased, but maintained that he acted in self-defence.
He was convicted of murder and sentenced to death by the High Court on July 24, 2018. He appealed, but this was dismissed by the Court of Appeal on June 29, 2020.
Lawyers Afifuddin Ahmad Hafifi, Datuk Salehuddin Saidin and Hafizuddin Salehuddin represented Ng while deputy public prosecutor Norzilati Izhani Zainal @ Zainol appeared for the prosecution. — Bernama
