PUTRAJAYA, May 2 — The Federal Court has commuted the death sentence imposed on a former resort housekeeper to 38 years in prison for murdering his employer, who was five months pregnant, nearly 16 years ago.
Hamzah Osman’s application for a review of his death sentence under the Revision of Sentence of Death and Imprisonment for Natural Life (Temporary Jurisdiction of the Federal Court) Act 2023 was allowed by a three-member panel today, comprising Federal Court judges Datuk Harmindar Singh Dhaliwal, Datuk Nordin Hassan, and Datuk Abu Bakar Jais.
In delivering the court’s decision, Justice Harmindar also ordered Hamzah to be given 12 strokes of the cane and for the sentence to run from the date of his arrest on August 21, 2008.
Hamzah, now 33, was initially found guilty and sentenced to death by the High Court in 2014, but in 2017, the Federal Court ordered a retrial.
Then, in 2018, the Ipoh High Court found the accused guilty and sentenced him to death for murdering Norazlida Iden, 31, in Room 202, Suria Beach Resort, Teluk Nipah, Pulau Pangkor, Perak, at 1am on August 18, 2008.
He further lost his appeals in the Court of Appeal and Federal court in 2018 and 2020, respectively.
Earlier, deputy public prosecutor Dhiya Syazwani Izyan Mohd Akhir objected to Hamzah’s application to commute his death sentence on the grounds that the deceased was five months pregnant at the time and, therefore, two lives were lost.
The accused’s lawyer Ali Munawar Razak appealed for his client to be given a second chance, as Hamzah was 18 years old at the time and has expressed remorse for his actions.
According to the case facts, the accused, who was employed by the deceased as a maintenance worker and housekeeper, was said to have disciplinary problems and was often reprimanded by the deceased before he was eventually terminated.
However, the deceased allowed him to stay at the resort while looking for a new job.
On the day of the incident, the deceased’s husband received news of her death in the room. Later, he found that her belongings, including money, jewellery, a laptop, cell phones, and a digital camera, were missing.
A post-mortem revealed that multiple blows from a blunt and hard object inflicted the injuries to the deceased’s head.
Police arrested Hamzah and two other men three days later and seized the deceased’s stolen jewellery and handphones from him. Hamzah then led police to recover seven pieces of jewellery from a goldsmith shop, where he had sold them on August 19, 2008, for RM1,500.
— Bernama
