What happened
Noritta Samsudin, a 22-year-old business development executive, was found dead in her bedroom at Puncak Prima Condominium in Kuala Lumpur on the morning of December 5, 2003. Police opened a high-profile murder investigation and arrested several people while reconstructing the final hours of her life.
On December 23, 2003, Shah Alam City Council engineer Hanif Basree Abdul Rahman was charged with Noritta's murder. The charge led to a lengthy trial built substantially around circumstantial, forensic and relationship evidence.
The trial
During the prosecution case, witnesses and forensic experts testified about the scene, DNA evidence and the victim's cause of death. Hanif acknowledged having been with Noritta before her death but denied murdering her.
On July 1, 2004, the High Court ruled that the prosecution had failed to establish a prima facie case. Hanif was acquitted without being called to enter a defence. The ruling was legally significant: an acquittal at that stage meant the court found the prosecution evidence insufficient to require the accused to answer the murder charge.
Appeals of the acquittal
The prosecution appealed. In January 2005, the Court of Appeal upheld the acquittal. Prosecutors then pursued a further appeal to Malaysia's Federal Court, arguing that the circumstantial evidence had been evaluated too narrowly.
On March 28, 2008, the Federal Court unanimously dismissed the prosecution's final appeal. The court concluded that the trial judge and Court of Appeal had correctly assessed the evidence and applicable legal principles. Hanif's acquittal therefore became final.
What the judgment means
The final appellate result does not identify who murdered Noritta. It establishes that the evidence presented against Hanif was legally insufficient to convict him and that his acquittal stands. This page therefore does not describe him as a perpetrator.
Contemporary reporting after the High Court ruling recorded Noritta's family urging investigators to find the person responsible. No reviewed judgment in this case file establishes another killer, so responsibility remains unresolved in the public judicial record used here.
Timeline
December 5, 2003: Noritta Samsudin is found dead in her Kuala Lumpur apartment.
December 23, 2003: Hanif Basree Abdul Rahman is charged with murder.
July 1, 2004: the High Court acquits Hanif without calling his defence after finding no prima facie case.
January 2005: the Court of Appeal upholds the acquittal.
March 28, 2008: the Federal Court unanimously dismisses the prosecution's final appeal and affirms the acquittal.
Current status
The case is classified here as unsolved / unadjudicated. The only person tried for Noritta's murder was finally acquitted by Malaysia's Federal Court, and the sources reviewed for this file do not establish another convicted perpetrator.