KUALA LUMPUR: The magistrate’s court today ordered the case involving the fire incident at Pusat Tahfiz Darul Quran Ittifaqiyah which claimed the lives of 23 people to be transferred to the High Court.
Magistrate Siti Radziah Kamarudin made the order when the case came up for mention today.
Two suspects, both aged 16, were charged at the magistrate’s court with murdering 21 students and two wardens-cum-teachers on Sept 14 last year.
The charge under Section 302 of the Penal Code carries a mandatory death sentence upon conviction.
Meanwhile, at another magistrate's court, magistrate Zilfinaz Abbas granted a discharge not amounting to acquittal to one of the accused on drug ingestion charges.
The teenager was alleged to have inserted ganja and syabu into his body at the toilet of the D7 Office of the Criminal Investigation Department, Kuala Lumpur police contingent headquarters here at 11.35am on Sept 16.
Deputy Public Prosecutors Nordin Ismail and Nurakmal Farhan Aziz prosecuted while the duo were represented by Haijan Omar and Joanne Chua.
In the fire incident about 5.15am on Sept 14, 21 students and two wardens-cum-teachers at the tahfiz centre were killed, after being trapped on the third floor of their hostel at the centre.
Investigators later established that the fire, which started at the entrance to the third floor dormitory, occurred under suspicious circumstances.
A day after the incident, police arrested seven suspects, aged between 12 and 18. It was later established that the teenagers had torched the building as a form of revenge, after being embroiled in an argument with some of the tahfiz students.
Following that, two 16-year-old boys were charged with murdering the 23 at the tahfiz centre in Jalan Keramat Hujung, Kampung Datuk Keramat, here, between 4.15am and 6.45am on Sept 14.