KUALA LUMPUR, June 27 — “I am saddened, I want to lodge a report,” said a Universiti Pertahanan Malaysia (UPNM) student who told the High Court here that he had written two poison-pen letters to UPNM’s top management to inform them that Zulfarhan Osman Zulkarnain was abused by his friends.
Muhammad Aiman Aufa Asmadi Affendi, 22, said he had written the letters after seeing the cadet officer lying on a bed with his body covered in blackish patches in the room 04-10, UPNM hostel at 6pm on May 22, 2017.
The third-year civil engineering student at UPNM said on that day, he went to the room to meet Muhammad Izzul Akhtar, one of the students occupying the room to discuss about an assignment but the latter was not there.
“I was looking for (Muhammad) Izzul, he was not there, when I was about to leave, I saw Osman (Zulfarhan Osman) on the bed, covered with a sarong cloth up to the waist,” he said during examination-in-chief by deputy public prosecutor Othman Abdullah on the 11th day of the trial today.
The 23rd prosecution witness said he then returned to his room 4-06 and talked to his roommate known as Akmal Akif about lodging a report over the incident.
He said the first letter was put through the slit of the Armed Forces Hospital fence on May 23, 2017 while the second letter was placed under the door of a trainer’s room the following day.
Earlier, an Uber driver Mustapa Kamal Ibrahim, 56, said he received a notification through the online booking system between 9 am and 10 am on May 31, 2017, asking him to take passengers at the De Centrum Apartment in Bangi and send them to a clinic, also in Bangi.
Mustapa Kamal said he then went to the apartment and met with the three passengers, one of whom on a wheelchair and was wearing a sarong cloth.
“I saw (Zulfarhan Osman) on a wheelchair, clad in blood-stained clothes, he looked a mess and in an unpleasant smell and his leg wrapped in a bandage. I asked his (Zulfarhan Osman) two friends what happened to him, they remained silent,” he said.
Mustapa Kamal said he then helped Zulfarhan Osman to get into the car as he saw the victim’s two friends seemed to be ignoring him.
He said upon reaching the clinic, he once again helped Zulfarhan Osman to get out of the vehicle and pushed him on the wheelchair before the victim repeatedly thanked him.
The witness said he then left the area and upon looking in the rear-view mirror of his car, he saw some mucus and blood stains on the back seat of the vehicle before removing them and picking up other passengers.
Six UPNM students, Muhammad Akmal Zuhairi, Muhammad Azamuddin, Muhammad Najib Mohd Razi, Muhammad Afif Najmudin, Mohamad Shobirin Sabri and Abdoul Hakeem Mohd Ali have pleaded not guilty to the murder and abetment in the murder of Zulfarhan Osman at room 04-10, Jebat hostel block of UPNM between 4.45 am and 5.45 am, on May 22, 2017.
The charges against them, all aged 22, were made under Section 302 and 109 of the Penal Code which provides for the mandatory death sentence upon conviction.
They, together with 13 other students, were also charged with voluntarily causing hurt to the victim to make him confess to the laptop theft, under Section 330 of the Penal Code read together with Section 34 of the same code which provides for a maximum jail term of seven years and fine, if convicted.
The hearing before judge Datuk Azman Abdullah continues tomorrow. — Bernama
