KOTA BHARU – A college student was charged at the Magistrate's Court here on Tuesday with the murder of fellow Kolej Poly-Tech MARA (KPTM) student Nurfisya Zulkifly, whose body was found bearing 61 stab wounds along a roadside in Ketereh on May 1.
The accused, Muhammad Hazim Muhammad, 19, nodded in understanding when the charge was read before Magistrate Rais Imran Hamid.
He is accused of murdering Nurfisya, also 19, between 11.40pm on April 30 and 12.20am on May 1, along Jalan Pengkalan Piah, Ketereh.
The charge was framed under Section 302 of the Penal Code, which carries the death penalty upon conviction. If the death sentence is not imposed, the alternative punishment is imprisonment of between 30 and 40 years and no fewer than 12 strokes of the cane.
No plea was recorded as murder cases fall under the jurisdiction of the High Court. The court fixed July 2 for case management and the submission of the forensic report. Bail was denied.
Leading the prosecution was Kelantan State Prosecution Director Wan Azimah Yaacob, assisted by deputy public prosecutors Muhamad Nadzir Abdullah and Ahmad Naabil Mohamed Asri. The accused was represented by lawyer Alias Ibrahim.
Nurfisya's body was discovered in the early hours of May 1 by villagers who came across her lying on a road near a paddy field in Ketereh, covered in blood. They immediately alerted police.
A post-mortem examination confirmed she had sustained 61 stab wounds across her body and face. The cause of death was determined to be multiple stab wounds to the chest.
Four individuals were arrested in connection with the incident, including two 19-year-old males, one of whom is Hazim.
The brutal nature of the killing and the victim's young age drew an outpouring of grief and public outrage on social media in the days that followed, with many calling for justice for Nurfisya.