KUALA LUMPUR – After 13 years in limbo, the Kuala Terengganu sessions court acquitted and discharged a former shooting coach of culpable homicide after he shot dead a man who tried to break into his house.
The court ruled that Zamil Ahmad Murad’s defence team has raised reasonable doubt in the prosecution’s case.
Previously, then-Terengganu sports council shooting coach Zamil was charged with intentionally causing the death of Syed Haikar Iskandar Syed Mahdzar, 34, between 4.15pm and 4.30pm on February 1, 2010.
Syed Haikar was shot dead when he was trying to break into Zamil’s house in Gong Badak, Kuala Nerus via the back door.
Zamil was supposedly at a shooting training centre at the time and went home after his wife called about Syed Haikar’s break-in attempts.
The defence had argued that Zamil acted out of necessity when confronted with an imminent threat to his life when Syed Haikar tried to attack him with a Rambo-style survival knife.
Zamil was ordered to enter his defence on February 13 this year.
He was charged under Section 304 (a) of the Penal Code with culpable homicide not amounting to murder, which carries a prison sentence of up to 30 years and a fine, upon conviction.
The prosecution was headed by deputy public prosecutors Engku Ahmad Rashdi Engku Abdillah and Intan Nor Hilwani while Zamil was represented by Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, Rahmat Hazlan, and Wan Mohammad Arfan Wan Othman. – October 15, 2023