A VISIBLY nervous Muhammad Rezza Rusli today told the court it was not normal for the occupants to remain in the house where a fire has broken out

The 30-year-old fireman was the seventh witness in the murder trial of Samirah Muzaffar, who is accused of killing her husband Nazrin Hassan.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Ashraf Ashy’ari had asked him if it was normal for a family to stay inside the house where a blaze had just been put out.

Rezza said it was abnormal for the occupants to stay put in the building if there was a fire.

“The family remained inside despite the house having caught fire. In my experience, it was odd because usually the family affected would stay outside,” Rezza replied.

This morning, the court heard that Samirah’s youngest son had lodged a police report on alleged police misconduct.

Lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah had asked the fifth witness, Inspector Anestassia Chin Fat if she was aware that the boy had lodged the police report in which he had alleged that he was questioned by three to five police officers in the interrogation room.

The court heard that the boy had also stated in the report that the interrogators had told him to cooperate if he wished to be released soon.

On June 14 last year, the 46-year-old Nazrin was found dead in his room at home in Mutiara Damansara.

It was initially deduced that Nazrin had died because his phone had exploded next to him but the case was reclassified as murder after traces of petrol were found in the room.

Samirah, 44, and her two sons, aged 14 and 17, are charged with the murder. Their maid, an Indonesian named Eka Wahyu Lestari, is accused of the same but is still at large.

The trial resumes tomorrow. – October 3, 2019.