MALAYSIA. SCHIZOPHRENIC HAS DEATH SENTENCE COMMUTED

Huzairin Azmi, a chronic schizophrenic, escaped the gallows when the Malaysian High Court acquitted him of murder on the grounds of insanity. Justice Datuk Abdull Hamid Embong, however, said that since Azmi, 21, had caused the death of a person, he would be detained at the pleasure of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong. In his judgment, Abdull Hamid said the victim, Muhammad Falil Sharbudin, 21, who was on his motorcycle, stopped at a traffic light junction in Jalan Sultan Ismail, when the accused stabbed him in the abdomen and neck with a knife. Huzairin was riding on another motorcycle. When both machines stopped at the traffic lights, he got off the bike, walked up to the victim and stabbed him. The judge said that a report prepared by Dr Rabaiah Mohd Salleh from Hospital Bahagia stated that Huzairin suffered from chronic schizophrenia.
Abdull Hamid said he concluded that Huzairin was not aware of his actions. "The act was carried out by the accused, but there was no intention," he said. As Abdull Hamid read out his judgment, Huzairin sat in the dock with a blank look. When court adjourned and he was approached by his parents, he did not say a word.