Blanket of love for lawyer

Token of appreciation: Visvanathan showing the blanket he received from Muhdalena.

KUALA LUMPUR: A woman who ran amok in Putrajaya three years ago with a man armed with a samurai sword has presented a blanket to her lawyer as appreciation for his free legal service.

Muhdalena Ahmad, 31, who was acquitted of four charges on grounds of insanity, stitched a seemingly complex message on the blanket about love falling from the sky and “may the light of humanity shine in us”.

There were also five hearts in red and white on the blue blanket.

Speaking to reporters yesterday, her lawyer M. Visvanathan who was surprised with the gift, said: “She told me that she made this blanket for me.”

Earlier, Muhdalena, who was handcuffed, chatted jovially with her counsel while she stood in the dock before her case was called before a deputy registrar.

High Court judge Justice Kamardin Hashim, who was supposed to deliver his judgment over the prosecution’s appeal against her acquittal, was away attending a course.

On June 19 last year, the former International Islamic University Malaysia student was acquitted by a Putrajaya Sessions Court of four charges, including for criminal intimidation and illegal possession of a sword. Muhdalena was also ordered by judge Mohamed Kamil Nizam to be sent to Hospital Permai in Tampoi, Johor.

Visvanathan said he had spoken to her doctor who noted that she was responding well to medication.

“Her movements are restricted but she is being taken care of by the doctors there,” he said, adding that she had given birth to a baby boy recently.

All her three children are being cared for by her mother.

Yesterday, High Court deputy registrar Noor Aini Yusof set Oct 29 to hear the prosecution’s appeal against her acquittal.

Muhdalena was charged with threatening auxiliary policeman Kpl Ridzuan Megat Ahmad, refusing to heed the officer’s warning to surrender a weapon, illegal possession of a sword, and refusing to heed the advice of a minister to obtain a permit before entering the restricted premises.

She was accused of committing the offences at Complex B of the Prime Minister’s Department at 2.30pm on July 9, 2012.

On that day, Muhdalena and her companion Khalil Afandi Abd Hamid allegedly went on a five-minute rampage, wielding samurai swords, damaging cars and attacking policemen.

The police shot Khalil Afandi in his left arm and groin while Muhdalena was shot in the thigh. Khalil Afandi was sent to the hospital but died 15 minutes later.

Judge Mohamed Kamil had ruled that Muhdalena suffered from psychotic depression.