KUALA LUMPUR: "MY darling". These were the last words Arab-Malaysian Development Bank founder Hussain Ahmad Najadi uttered after he was gunned down at a temple here last year.
After saying this, his wife, managing consultant Cheong Mei Kuen broke down in the witness stand yesterday at the trial of tow truck driver Koong Swee Kwan, 45, charged with murdering Hussain, 75, and attempting to kill her as well at the parking area of Kuan Yin Temple at No. 4, Lorong Ceylon, Dang Wangi here, between 1.30pm and 2pm on July 29.
Cheong, 50, said they were shot at while crossing the temple's parking area to meet their driver who was waiting outside the main gate.
"As we walked, all of a sudden I heard sounds like firecrackers. My husband turned to me and said 'My darling!'. All I know is I fell to the ground and I heard the sound I described (like firecrackers).
"Suddenly my husband fell on me, face up. I looked up and saw the man (assailant) in front of us," she said as she cradled her bandaged left hand.
To questions by deputy public prosecutor Yusaini Amer Abd Karim during examination-in-chief, Cheong said the man wore spectacles and was 61 to 91cm away from her as he wielded a gun.
"The gun was pointed at my husband's chest. My instinct told me he (the assailant) would shoot him (Hussain) in the chest.
"I tried to shield my husband by putting my right hand over his chest and rubbing it up and down," she said, demonstrating by frantically moving her right hand up and down in front of her.
"I did not want the man to shoot at his chest. I was moving my arm briskly. Then he (Hussain) was shot in the chest," she said crying.
Cheong said she held on to her husband even as someone tried to pull her from under Hussain's body.
She recalled being put on the front seat of a car and driven to Tung Shin Hospital and was later transferred to Prince Court Medical Centre the same day.
She said she was treated for injuries in the left arm and right thigh.
Cheong, while holding up her left arm, said she had not fully recovered and was still undergoing treatment.
Cheong identified her husband's body at Kuala Lumpur Hospital on July 30 last year and picked out Koong as the gunman at an identification parade at Dang Wangi police headquarters on Sept 26.
"I will never forget his (Koong's face) until the day I die," she said, holding her right hand in front of her to show how close the gunman was to her on the day of the incident.
Prince Court Medical Centre's consultant orthopaedic surgeon Dr Yong Chee Kuen, 48, said Cheong had suffered second-stage haemorrhagic shock as she lost between 15 and 30 per cent of her blood.
He said she was very lucky as the bullet that went through her right thigh had missed major blood arteries.
Hearing continues today before High Court judge Datuk Mohd Azman Husin.
