ALOR STAR: A former cook escaped the gallows for murdering a university student who rejected his advances nine years ago.
Deputy public prosecutor Mohd Fuad Abdul Aziz today urged the Federal Court to uphold the death sentence passed down by the Taiping High Court against the applicant, Syarafi Abu, 34.
"When I read the case facts, my heart breaks. I am angry. The victim had a future. She was studying at a university.
"I am sorry, Your Honours, I am emotional because I have children too.
"We raise them as children but when they grow up, they are snatched and end up being murdered."
He told the judges this in a proceeding at the High Court here.
Fuad argued against the submission by applicant's counsel, Farida Mohammad, that the murder was not pre-meditated.
"It was said that they had a fight, but the victim was stabbed with a Rambo knife (serrated knife) with jagged edges, not a kitchen knife. Furthermore, she was stabbed in the neck.
"I am sorry I got carried away. (The applicant) killed a person, then pleaded to be spared from the gallows.
"I am sorry, Your Honours. If he doesn't get the death penalty, the court should sentence him to 40 years in jail and extra strokes of rotan. Make it 20 whippings."
Farida said the applicant had a history of mental illness due to substance-induced psychosis.
"If the applicant hadn't suffered from mental illness, the fierce argument that had led to the victim's death would not have happened.
"The applicant is remorseful and pleading for a lighter sentence of a jail punishment of between 31 and 35 years."
On May 12, 2017, the Taiping High Court handed the death sentence to Syarafi after he was found guilty of the murder of Universiti Teknologi Mara student Nur Syuhada Johari, 19, by slashing her neck.
He had committed the offence in a car at Km228.2 of the Plus Expressway near Bukit Gantang on Feb 2, 2015.
On Nov 6, 2019, the Federal Court upheld the High Court decision.
It was reported that the applicant was agitated that the victim, who was also his neighbour, had repeatedly rejected his advances.
Farida informed the court that Syarafi had been referred to the Tanjung Rambutan Mental Hospital for psychiatric evaluation.
"He is on medication to treat his mental illness, and he is seeing a counsellor at the prison."
She urged the judges to consider the trend of decisions by the Federal Court involving death cases.
"As compared with the cases referred to, this case is less serious since it involved only a minor stab wound, not multiple injuries."
Syarafi, the fourth of six children, was a picture of calm in the dock throughout the proceeding.
The Federal Court panel of three judges — led by Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, alongside Chief Judge of Malaya Tan Sri Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim and Federal Court judge Datuk Nordin Hassan — set aside the death sentence and ordered the applicant to serve 38 years imprisonment and 14 strokes of the rotan.
The sentence is to run from his date of arrest on Feb 2, 2015.
Syarafi's mother, Robiah Alwin, 62, broke down in tears as she was led out from the courtroom by her husband, Abu Husin.
"Usually, applicants get up to 35 years in jail, but the court today sentenced my son to 38 years' imprisonment and 14 strokes of the rotan instead.
"I don't know if he can take it, (the punishment)" she said outside the courtroom.
Abu, 62, said while they are devastated by the sentencing, the family were grateful that their son had escaped the gallows.