PUTRAJAYA: A health clinic medical assistant today walked out of the courtroom smiling after the Federal Court upheld his acquittal over the murder of a religious school clerk who was his neighbour six years ago.
"Bebas (Free)!," said Zurailie Muhamad, 36, as soon as he walked out of the door after the proceedings.
A three-member panel led by Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat made the ruling after dismissing the prosecution's appeal against Zurailie's acquittal.
In the decision, Tengku Maimun said there was no error in the decision by the High Court in acquitting Zurailie without having his defence called at the end of the prosecution's case.
She said the Court of Appeal also did not err when it upheld that decision.
"We find that there was no error in the decision by the courts below. The decision of the High Court and the Court of Appeal is affirmed," she said.
Federal Court judges Datuk Zaleha Yusof and Datuk Harmindar Singh Daliwal also presided.
The prosecution was appealing against the Court of Appeal's decision on Nov 6, 2019, which upheld the decision of the Johor Baru High Court in acquitting and discharging Zurailie of murder on Jan 28, 2018.
Earlier, deputy public prosecutor Faizah Mohd Salleh submitted that there was sufficient evidence to link the respondent to the death of the victim, Nurul Shahira Mohamed Yatim.
She said there was strong circumstantial evidence that Zurailie had committed the murder and that he ought to enter his defence.
She said a prosecution witness had testified that Zurailie was deep in debt and a day after the incident, he had pawned the mobile phone and jewellery belonging to the victim at a goldsmith shop for RM1,000 to settle his debt.
"This shows that the respondent had the victim's mobile phone, gold necklace and bracelet in his hand in less than 24 hours after the (murder) incident," she said.
Faizah also submitted that the respondent had behaved strangely when he persuaded the victim's husband, who was a soldier, to not conduct a post mortem examination on the deceased.
"As a person who works in the medical field, the respondent must have known the importance of a post mortem," she said.
On the issue raised by the defence on the discovery of a DNA from a semen sample which belonged to the victim's husband found in her private part, the DPP said it was not something unusual.
This, she said, was because the victim's husband had testified that he had sexual intercourse with his wife the night before the incident and had returned to work in Ulu Tiram, Johor Baru the next morning.
"There was also evidence that her husband had returned to work the next morning (on the day of the incident) and when the murder happened which was around 2.30pm, her husband was still at his workplace," she added.
Meanwhile, Zuraile's lawyer Nahdan Rengganathan Abdullah argued that there was no evidence showing his client's involvement in hurting and killing the victim as there were no traces of the latter's DNA on the victim.
"There was no evidence of the respondent's fingerprints, nails or hair which links the respondent to the murder," he said.
He said according to the DNA result, there was a DNA collected from a semen sample which was found on the victim, but it did not match that of his client, but the victim's husband.
The lawyer had also in his submissions raised the issue of defective investigation on the part of the investigating officer for failing to conduct the investigations properly and look into the key issues in the case.
Zurailie was charged with murdering Nurul Shahira, 29, at her house in Taman Setia Kasih in Bukit Pasir, Muar, between 2.05pm and 2.30pm on Nov 16, 2015.
High Court judge Datuk Muhammad Jamil Hussin had acquitted Zurailie without calling for his defence after ruling that the prosecution had failed to establish a prima facie case against the accused.
