PETALING JAYA, March 4 — Cradle Fund Sdn Bhd’s late chief executive officer Nazrin Hassan’s wife and two teenagers were today charged with his murder last year.

Samirah Muzaffar, 43, is also the daughter of prominent Malaysian political scientist Chandra Muzaffar, who was spotted in a wheelchair in the courtroom that was packed to standing capacity.

Samirah and the two teenagers were charged under Section 302 of the Penal Code for the murder offence, which is punishable with the death sentence at the Magistrate’s Court here.

The charge under Section 302 was read together with Section 34 of the Penal Code, where each of the accused would be liable in the same manner as if the act was done by the person alone if a criminal act is done by several persons to fulfil their common intention.

The three were charged together with an Indonesian woman still at large — Eka Wahyu Lestari — with murdering Nazrin at a Mutiara Damansara house between 11.30pm on June 13, 2018 and 4am on June 14, 2018.

Samirah and the two teenage boys who were wearing school uniforms nodded when asked individually if they understood the murder charge that was read out to them.

No plea was recorded for Samirah and the two who are aged below 18.

Deputy public prosecutor Datuk Jamil Aripin, who heads the trial unit in the Attorney General’s Chambers’ Appellate and Trial Division, had asked the court to issue an order to prevent the teenagers from being identified by the media.

"The second and third accused are children, so before I ask for the charges to be read, I would like to ask for the courts to issue a ban to the media under Section 15 of the Child Act to not disclose their names, address or any details that can lead to the children’s identification, while also prohibiting the taking of their photos and publishing those photos,” he told the magistrate.

Jamil had also asked for the charges to be read out to the three without recording their plea as it is triable in the High Court, before later applying for the criminal case to be transmitted to the High Court as soon as possible.

Magistrate Mohamad Ikhwan Mohd Nasir allowed the prosecution’s request, ordering the media not to disclose any details which could identify the two or to snap their photographs.

Mohamad Ihwan also ordered the case to be transferred to the High Court immediately.

No date has been fixed yet at the High Court for this case.

DPP Mohd Zain Ibrahim was also on the prosecution team, while lawyers representing the trio are LS Leonard and Mahinderjit Singh.

Samirah Muzaffar's father Chandra Muzaffar arrives at the Petaling Jaya Magistrate's Court March 4, 2019. — Picture by Ahmad Zamzahuri

Selangor police had arrested the trio this morning at 6.45am, while the other individual is at large.

On June 14 last year, Nazrin, 45, was found dead on the upper floor of his double-storey house in Mutiara Damansara, with burn marks on 30 per cent of his body.

Police on August 3 reclassified the case as murder under Section 302 of the Penal Code, following the Fire and Rescue Department’s forensic investigation report which cited suspected foul play in the death.

Cradle Fund, a firm under the Ministry of Finance, oversees the development of tech entrepreneurs and the Malaysian start-up ecosystem.

The agency had provided seed funding to firms such as ride-hailing provider Grab (previously MyTeksi) and fintech start-up iMoney.

Former Cradle Fund CEO Nazrin Hassan was found dead at his two-storey house in Mutiara Damansara on June 14 last year. — Bernama pic