Wife, sons and maid charged with murder of Cradle CEO

Nazrin Hassan and Sarimah Muzaffar

The death of Cradle Fund chief executive officer Nazrin Hassan has taken a sensational turn with his wife Samirah Muzaffar, two teenage sons and their maid charged today with his murder.

Selangor Criminal Investigations Department chief SAC Fadzil Ahmat said Samirah and the teenagers were arrested at 6.45am from their home before they were taken to the Petaling Jaya magistrate’s court this afternoon.

Samirah, 43, her two sons aged 17 and 15, and their Indonesian maid Eka Wahayu Lestari were jointly charged with the murder of Nazrin between 11.30pm on June 13, 2018 and 4am on June 14, 2018 at a house in Mutiara Damansara. Eka was charged in absentia as she is in Indonesia.

The offence carries the mandatory death sentence. No plea was recorded and no bail was offered.

Nazrin, 45, was said to have suffered a puncture wound to his head and police had to exhume his remains to conduct a second post-mortem.

Nazrin was initially thought to have died from smoke inhalation resulting from a fire caused by an exploding mobile phone in his bedroom at a double-storey semi-detached house in Mutiara Damansara on June 14 last year.

Traces of petrol were found on Nazrin’s head, bedframe, mattress and his cellphone.

Nazrin’s family had claimed he had left his office early on the eve of Hari Raya complaining of migrane. They said he went to bed at noon after taking some medication when the mobile phone he was charging exploded.

Samirah, a senior executive at the Intellectual Property Corporation of Malaysia (MyIPO), had accused the authorities of keeping her and her family in the dark.

She had said media reports were inconsistent with the first autopsy findings.

Samirah said the autopsy report made no mention of “traces of petrol on his head” or on any other part of Nazrin’s body.

Nazrin’s death triggered wide public interest over mobile phones exploding while being charged.

Nazrin had been with Cradle Fund for 15 years. The company, under the Ministry of Finance, encourages entrepreneurship in ICT, bio-technology, life sciences, material sciences and technology industries.

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