Cradle CEO murder: Widow released on RM500k bail pending trial

The Federal Court today allowed Samirah Muzaffar, the wife of the late Cradle Fund CEO Nazrin Hassan, to be released on bail of RM500,000 with two sureties pending her murder trial.

Federal Court judge Azahar Mohamed, who chaired a five-member bench, also imposed several conditions on Samirah, including surrendering her passport to the court and reporting to a police station every two weeks.

Azahar also said 44-year-old Samirah – a former senior executive at Intellectual Property Corporation of Malaysia (MyIPO) – must remain indoors from 6pm to 8am, and also prevented from attending public places and public functions, except for family and religious matters.

"The applicant (Samirah) is also not to leave Kuala Lumpur or Petaling Jaya without leave of the court," he said.

Samirah, two teenagers aged 14 and 17, and Indonesian national Eka Wahyu Lestari, who is still at large, were charged with the murder of Nazrin, 47, at a house in Mutiara Damansara, between 11.30pm on June 13, 2018 and 4am on June 14, 2018.

The charge, under Section 302 of the Penal Code and read together with Section 34 of the same code, provides for a mandatory death sentence upon conviction.

On March 27, this year, the High Court in Shah Alam granted bail of RM50,000 in two sureties each to the two teenage boys.

In allowing Samirah's (photo) application to be released on bail pending trial, Azahar said the High Court judge failed to address the provision of Section 388 (1) of the Criminal Procedure Code, which allows a woman who is facing a charge for non-bailable offence to be released on bail pending trial.

He said there were favourable circumstances to Samirah which were not adequately considered by the High Court, including that she has two young children below the age of five who required her care.

Azahar said Samirah had also given full cooperation during police investigations, which was also not adequately considered by the High Court judge. He added that the possibility of Samirah tampering potential witnesses in the trial was a vague assertion.

The judge also noted that the High Court judge had failed to exercise his discretion judiciously when he disallowed Samirah's bail application.

The other judges on the bench were Ramly Ali, Alizatul Khair Osman Khairuddin, Mohd Zawawi Salleh and Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim.

Samirah filed an application for bail at the Federal Court after the High Court and Court of Appeal rejected her bail application.

Her murder trial is fixed for Sept 3.

After the court's decision, her counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah told reporters that Samirah would be posting bail tomorrow morning, as her family needed to raise the bail money.

He said an order to produce (OTP) has been issued for Samirah to be present in the court at 9am.

Shafee said Samirah's case is a landmark decision on bail from the highest court in the Commonwealth jurisdiction.

Deputy public prosecutors Jamil Aripin and Jasmee Hameeza Jaafar appeared for the prosecution.

- Bernama