SHAH ALAM, June 21 — Samirah Muzaffar and two teenagers have been acquitted in the charge of murdering Cradle Fund chief executive officer Nazrin Hassan in 2019, the High Court ruled today.

High Court judge Ab Karim Ab Rahman said the prosecution failed to successfully prove a prima facie case against Samirah, 47, and the two teenagers who are now aged 19 and 16.

In his ruling, Ab Karim said the prosecution failed to prove that Nazrin’s death took place between 11.30pm on June 13, 2018 and 4am on June 14, 2018 — as per the charge.

Ab Karim said the prosecution had merely "assumed” all three accused were with the deceased during the incident as per the charge sheet, adding that the circumstances did not show the accused had inflicted harm which resulted in the death of Nazrin.

"There is no direct evidence that they (the accused) committed the offence,” he said.

Ab Karim also said the prosecution attempted to implicate Samirah by stating she did not alert the Fire and Rescue Department and that she did not express any "sorrow” upon her husband’s death.

"The act of not alerting the authorities, no sorrowful expression... all of them were the prosecution’s perception and unrelated, more so certain actions could not be explained through testimonies given by witnesses,” he said.

Representing Samirah, lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah said the defence was more than prepared if the prosecution were to challenge today’s acquittal, before expressing his utmost confidence in facing any sort of eventuality.

"We are definitely prepared as can be seen from our submissions and if there is an appeal from the prosecution, I think we are given another chance to prove the ingredient of this charge.

"So we stand to win assuming there is an appeal because we think the decision will be maintained and the reasoning will be even more why it has to be acquitted at this time,” he said.

Separately, Nazrin’s brother, Dr Abdul Aziz Che Hassan, told reporters they hoped the Attorney General’s Chambers would file an appeal against the ruling.

"If they do not do so, we will ask for an inquest to determine his cause of death,” Aziz said, who was present in court with other family members.

The trio and an Indonesian woman, Eka Wahyu Lestari, who is at large, were charged on March 12, 2019, with murdering Nazrin at his house in Mutiara Damansara between 11.30pm on June 13, 2018, and 4am the following day.

The hearing began on September 6, 2019.

The prosecution closed its case last February 14 after calling 57 witnesses.