Teen in Cradle CEO case was calm when giving statement

A witness in the murder trial of Cradle Fund chief executive officer (CEO) Nazrin Hassan told the High Court here today that one of the accused, aged 14, was composed when his statement was recorded by the police.

Inspector Anestassia Chin Fat, a criminal investigations officer at the Petaling Jaya district police headquarters (IPD) said the teenager was calm and able to handle each question thrown at him.

Anestassia, the trial's seventh witness, was the former investigating officer who recorded the teenager's statements at the Petaling Jaya IPD on Sept 11 last year.

“He understood each question presented to him in Malay. He also read through his recorded statement and I had also asked him to amend or add anything that he felt necessary,” she said.

She was replying to questions by deputy public prosecutor Salim Soib @ Hamid before judge Ab Karim Ab Rahman.

Asked on why there were no legal representatives or family members accompanying the teenager, Anestassia said it was not necessary as his statement was consistent with the one taken before he was held under remand.

Questioned whether the accused was more fluent and comfortable communicating in English, she said the teenager had no problems understanding her questions in Malay and read the statement in the same language.

Earlier, lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, who is leading the defence team, told the court that prior to having his statement recorded, the teenager claimed that he had been lied to by the investigating officer.

He said the teenager had lodged a police report on the matter on Sept 22, claiming that it had happened while he was under remand.

Muhammad Shafee then read the police report that he lodged to amend the statement he recorded while he was under a week's remand from Sept 5.

“While I was in remand, I was questioned by three to five police personnel in a room. I was told to cooperate and if I did that, I would be released much earlier,” his report, as read by Muhammad Shafee, stated.

On March 12, Samirah Muzaffar, 44, a former senior executive at the Intellectual Property Corporation of Malaysia and two teenagers aged 17 and 14, were charged, along with Indonesian citizen, Eka Wahyu Lestari, who is still at large, with Nazrin’s murder.

They are alleged to have committed the offence at a house in Mutiara Homes, Mutiara Damansara, between 11.30 pm on June 13, 2018, and 4 am on June 14, 2018.

They are charged under Section 302 of the Penal Code read together with Section 34 of the same Act.

-Bernama