PUTRAJAYA: A Pakistani Muslim who beheaded a prison doctor for allegedly insulting his religion will be hanged after his appeal was denied by the Federal Court here.
Shafaqat Ali Ghulam Nabi, 33, was accused of murdering Dr Harjit Singh Bachan Singh on August 23, four years ago, at his home in Kampung Sungai Padang, Sertik Karak, Pahang.
Shafaqat Ali had been employed by Dr Harjit, then 51, to tend to his garden.
According to court documents, Shafaqat Ali was driven to murder Dr Harjit for an insult he allegedly made against the Kaaba (a holy site for Muslims), nearly eight months before the killing.
On the night of the incident, Shafaqat Ali had invited his friend Jamsheet Ali and Dr Harjit to his house.
Shafaqat asked Jamsheet to leave the living room then demanded an apology from Dr Harjit for the insult, threatening him with a two-foot-long parang.
When Jamsheet came back to the living room, he saw that the doctor had been beheaded, which Shafaqat confessed to.
During the trial at the Kuantan High Court, a neighbour who testified said Shafaqat had given him RM100as a donation for a local mosque as penance for the murder.
Shafaqat was appealing against the High Court's decision to sentence him to death.
His lawyer Kitson Foong submitted that under Section 342 of the Criminal Procedure Code, a person of unsound mind is unable to defend himself and is unfit to be tried.
However, DPP Wan Shaharuddin Wan Ladin argued that the Section 342's intention was to determine a person's mental state when the case was brought to court, not during the commission of offence.
He added that provocation could not be a license to kill someone in cold blood.
Chief Judge of Malaya Justice Zulkefli Ahmad Makinudin dismissed the final stage appeal, agreeing that the murder was cruel and disproportionate to the supposed provocation.
Justice Zulkefli Ahmad also found that the provocation was not sudden, as the insult was made nearly eight months before the killing.
The panel, which also included Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Justice Richard Malanjum, Justices Zainun Ali, Ramly Ali and Zaharah Ibrahim, ruled that the conviction was safe.
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