FORMER Cradle Fund CEO Nazrin Hassan’s body was found in an “abnormal way” for someone who supposedly died in a fire, the Shah Alam High Court heard today.

Witness Tan Hoss, the firefighter who led the team that put out a blaze at Nazrin’s home on June 14 last year, said that those caught in a fire would usually try to look for an exit, but the position of Nazrin’s body did not indicate this.

“I have seen at least three dead bodies of people who died in a fire and all of them were found either kneeling or lying face down on the ground.

“But Nazrin was not. He was found face up and his body was still, as if he had not moved. 

“Fire victims would usually run for an exit, and are usually found dead near a possible exit,” Tan, who has served with the Fire and Rescue Department since 2011, told the court during the murder trial today. 

Nazrin, 45, died in his room at his Mutiara Damansara home in Petaling Jaya on June 14 last year, on the eve of Hari Raya.

His wife, Samirah Muzaffar, is accused, along with her two teenage sons, of killing Nazrin and covering it up by saying that he had died in a fire caused by a smartphone that had exploded.

Police are also seeking Indonesian maid Eka Wahyu Lestari, believed to have been employed by the family. Eka was also charged in absentia with the murder.

The case, initially classified as sudden death, was reclassified as murder after a forensic report found traces of accelerant in the room.

Meanwhile, Hoss was later questioned by deputy public prosecutor Halim Soib on whether he had seen two smartphones near the body when firefighters entered the room.

Hoss replied in the affirmative, but added that one of the teenage suspects took one of the phones away.

“I also took pictures of the charger that (supposedly) caught fire. But then the first teenage suspect came and grabbed the phone, and left the room.

“I don’t know if he had requested permission to enter the room and I didn’t ask him,” Hoss said during testimony before judge Ab Rahman Ab Karim.

Hoss is the prosecution’s 13th witness.

The 12th witness in the case, retired police officer Nur Ronal Adnes Amir, had last month told the court that Samirah looked uneasy and only wanted to go up to the room that had caught fire.

“I met the owner of the house, who was accompanied by two neighbours at the time. She was not stable, emotionally.

“She was not crying but looked uneasy and wanted to go up to the room,” Ronal had said.

Previous witnesses had told the court that they discovered a bag of firecrackers in the same master bedroom that had caught fire.

Samirah’s legal team is led by Muhammad Shafee Abdullah and comprises at least five more lawyers.

The case resumes next week. – November 8, 2019.