PETALING JAYA: A 15-year-old boy who stabbed and killed his schoolmate at a secondary school in Malaysia’s Selangor state last October was ruled to be of unsound mind and acquitted of murder on Monday (Sep 14).
But the Shah Alam High Court ordered the boy be placed at Hospital Bahagia Ulu Kinta in Perak for a period to be approved by the Selangor sultan, Bernama news agency reported. He will undergo treatment there.
The boy’s lawyer, Kitson Foong, told the media his client was found to be of unsound mind at the time of the incident.
“Accordingly, the defence successfully raised Section 84 of the Penal Code. The court recorded an acquittal on the ground of insanity,” Foong said after the proceedings, which were held behind closed doors because the accused is a juvenile.
The court also accepted the testimony of a consultant forensic psychiatrist at Hospital Bahagia Ulu Kinta, who confirmed that the teenager was suffering from severe and aggressive schizophrenia, Foong said.
“The schizophrenia caused him to lose his sense of self. He believed he was a god. He said he heard voices and instructions from someone. The prosecution did not dispute this,” he said, as reported by national news agency Bernama.
According to Foong, Judge Adlin Abdul Majid reminded the teenager to recognise that his actions had resulted in the loss of a life and urged him to be grateful for the second chance he had been given.
It was not reported whether prosecutors would file an appeal.
The boy was charged on Oct 22 last year after the Oct 14 stabbing in the girls’ toilet of a secondary school in Bandar Utama. The boy was in Form 1 – roughly equivalent to Secondary One in Singapore – at the time while his victim was a Form 3 student.
In January, he was declared fit to stand trial and able to mount his defence after completing a psychiatric assessment at Hospital Bahagia Ulu Kinta, local media reported.
He pleaded not guilty in February and his trial began on Aug 3. The prosecution called 11 witnesses and the defence called two, including the boy himself, Bernama reported.
His charge had carried the death penalty or imprisonment of 30 to 40 years and not less than 12 strokes of the cane, upon conviction.
Under Section 97(1) of the Child Act 2001, however, those under the age of 18 cannot be sentenced to death, local media reported.
In Malaysia, the minimum age of criminal responsibility is 10.
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