Ex-religious teacher escapes gallows for murdering girlfriend, gets 33 years instead

PUTRAJAYA: A former religious teacher at a school in Selangor escaped the gallows when the Federal Court commuted the death sentence to 33 years jail and 12 strokes of the rotan for killing his girlfriend, nine years ago.

A panel of three judges chaired by Datuk Hadhariah Syed Ismail made the unanimous decision to set aside the death sentence handed down by the Shah Alam High Court against Abdul Ra’of Mohd Dimyati, 35, after allowing his final appeal against the sentence.

“The death penalty is set aside and replaced it with a prison sentence of 33 years from the date of arrest (May 6, 2015), and 12 strokes of the rotan,” said Hadhariah, who sat with judges Datuk Harmindar Singh Dhaliwal and Datuk Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil.

On April 27, 2018, the Shah Alam High Court sentenced Abdul Ra’of to death after he was found guilty of killing online trader Nor Salina Nazir, 34, at an open space near Kuala Kubu Baharu Religious Primary School at 8.30pm on May 5, 2015 under Section 302 of the Penal Code.

Abdul Ra’of then appealed against the conviction and the Court of Appeal upheld the conviction and sentence against the appellant on Aug 10, 2020.

Earlier, Abdul Ra’of’s lawyer Muhammad Izzat Irfan told the court that they had submitted a representation to the Attorney General’s Office for the exclusion of the death penalty in line with the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023 (Act 846) and informed that there was no objection from the prosecution.

He said that his client, who had no previous convictions, had shown remorse for the offence committed and regretted it.

“My client had no motive to kill the victim and had not planned to do so beforehand. He regretted the mistake and apologised to the family of the deceased (victim).

“The appellant has been in prison for almost nine years since his arrest on May 6, 2015. I ask for a fair judgement so that the appellant can return to his family,” he added.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Fuad Aziz, who did not oppose the representation, requested that the appellant be sentenced to a minimum of 35 years imprisonment and at least 12 strokes of rotan.- BK