The Federal Court upheld the 18-year imprisonment sentence for six National Defense University (UPNM) students on manslaughter charges, based on the grounds that mere denial without supporting evidence is insufficient to defend against criminal charges.
The six were accused of bullying another National Defense University student, Zulfarhan, to death.
“The law clearly states that a mere denial, without any other evidence that the court can rely on, is not sufficient to challenge the prosecution’s charges.”
“In other words, to create reasonable doubt in the prosecution’s case, the defense cannot rely solely on a simple denial.”
In the 74-page judgment released last week, Judge Datuk Nordin Hassan stated that a good defense should be able to adequately address the evidence presented by the prosecution, thereby creating reasonable doubt in the case.
The six were initially charged with murder, but on November 2, 2021, the Kuala Lumpur High Court ruled that the prosecution could not prove that all the defendants had intentionally murdered the victim, and they were charged under Section 304(a) of the Penal Code, with the six convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 18 years in prison.
Subsequently, the prosecution appealed, insisting on charging the six with murder and succeeded in getting the Court of Appeal to convict them and sentence them to death, but this ruling was eventually overturned.
Nordin Hassan indicated that evidence showed Zulfarhan was continuously assaulted over two days in May 2017, suffering 90 first, second, and third degree burns on various parts of his body.
He passed away in the hospital on June 1, 2017.
Nordin Hassan stated that the prosecution had provided evidence showing the defendants burned the victim with hot iron, and proved they had a common criminal intent.
However, the judge noted that the prosecution could not prove the crime constituted murder because forensic experts testified under cross-examination that the injuries sustained by the victim were not necessarily fatal.