The Palace of Justice building, which houses Malaysia’s Court of Appeal and Federal Court, in Putrajaya

MALAYSIA: APEX COURT AFFIRMS DEATH SENTENCE OF EX-GUARD WHO MURDERED COLLEAGUES

January 11, 2024:

The Putrajaya Federal Court on January 4, 2024 unanimously affirmed the death sentence imposed on a former security guard for murdering his two colleagues, seven years ago.
Announcing the verdict, Court of Appeal president Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim said Ferdaus Suwardi’s conviction for murder was safe.
Ferdaus had on July 31, 2017 murdered his then colleagues, Wan Amir Hamzah Abu Hassan and Syed Fazrul Syed Ridhwan, at a chicken slaughtering factory in Kampung Kuantan, Klang.
Syed Fazrul was found with 45 slash wounds on his body while Wan Amir was slashed 23 times.
“The accused failed to prove on the balance of probabilities that he was of unsound mind when he committed the offence.
“We declined to invoke our discretion (to substitute the death sentence with a custodial sentence) in light of the gruesome manner in which the crime was committed,” said Abang Iskandar.
Also on the three-member apex court panel were Justices Mary Lim and Abu Bakar Jais.
Ferdaus was convicted of the murders and sentenced to death by the High Court in 2019. The decision was affirmed by the Court of Appeal in 2022.
During mitigation earlier, lawyer Fadhly Yaacob, representing Ferdaus, urged the court to substitute his client’s death sentence with a 30-year jail term.
However deputy public prosecutor Ng Siew Wee urged the court to uphold the death sentence as the murder was premeditated.