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		Selina Lum Tue, Apr 15, 2008 The Straits Times
Teen, 17, pleads guilty but won't be hanged
STABBED in the back and neck by his wife's teenage lover, Mr Manap Sarlip came face to face with his assailant as he squatted against a wall outside his Whampoa Drive flat. 'What wrong have I done to you?' the 29-year-old shouted in Malay, cupping a hand over his gushing neck wound. Muhammad Nasir Abdul Aziz - then two months short of 17 - stabbed him in the neck again, then ran down the stairs after the victim coughed up blood.

Details of how the teenager killed his lover's husband last July 1 were recounted in the High Court yesterday when Nasir pleaded guilty to murder without trial, an extremely rare occurrence in the courts here.

While the charge carries the death penalty, Nasir won't face the gallows but is expected to be sentenced to indefinite detention as he was under 18 at the time of the killing.

The case has been adjourned to today for his lawyer to make submissions that may count when his detention is up for review.

Last week, Nasir's 25-year-old lover, Aniza Essa, admitted that she had manipulated the teenager into killing her disc-jockey husband to escape an unhappy marriage.

Although she initially faced the gallows for abetting murder, the charge was later reduced to abetting manslaughter. A psychiatrist found she had a mental disorder that reduced her responsibility for the crime.

Prosecutors have since lodged an appeal against her nine-year jail term.

Nasir met Aniza at the end of 2006 when he patronised the pub where she worked as a waitress.

He became a regular customer and they began an affair after he started working as a bartender at the pub in February last year.

Aniza told him about her marital problems and, by June, she was plotting to get rid of Mr Manap, the court heard.

DEAD: Mr Manap had crawled to his flat after the attack but was stabbed again at his doorstep.

Nasir agreed to kill Aniza's husband because he was afraid of losing her. He tried twice but failed. Each time, Aniza said she was disappointed and threatened to leave him.

The teenager first tried to hire an assassin through a pub patron whom he believed had underworld connections. He was prepared to pay $4,000 but the plot eventually dissolved.

Facing pressure from Aniza, Nasir later lay in wait for Mr Manap but could not carry the plan through.

He succeeded on the third try.

Aniza remained in the couple's flat while Nasir waited at the lift lobby. He attacked Mr Manap as soon as the victim turned around and saw him holding a knife. He later dumped the knife in a canal.

Mr Manap was stabbed nine times and bled to death from a chest wound.

The court heard that Nasir, the younger of two sons, was brought up by an aunt after his mother walked out on the family while he was an infant. He quit school in Secondary 3.

His family was unaware of his affair with Aniza and was shocked by the stabbing.

A consultant psychiatrist found that Nasir had no mental deficiency or disorder.

The court heard that according to the psychiatric report, Nasir felt he had 'no choice but to act' once Mr Manap spotted him.

Although the teenager had a strong emotional attachment to Aniza, he was now angry with her for betraying him and using him to get rid of her husband, said the report.

He told the psychiatrist in December that he had periodic thoughts of hurting her but would 'let God punish her' instead.

Rare to allow guilty plea without trial

THIS was probably the first time a person accused of a capital offence was allowed to plead guilty to the charge.

Criminal lawyers said that, as a matter of practice, the courts do not allow those charged with murder or other offences carrying a mandatory death sentence to plead guilty without trial. Given the gravity of the penalty, judges reject a guilty plea to ensure that hanging is justified.

A trial will be held for the prosecution to prove its case, for the evidence to be cross-examined and for the judge to clarify any issues.

The court could have allowed it as Muhammad Nasir Abdul Aziz (right), 17, will not face the gallows, being below 18 at the time of the offence.

His lawyer Subhas Anandan, the Association of Criminal Lawyers' president, said: 'I've not come across a case where a plea of guilt was accepted for a capital charge.'

In a similar case seven years ago, a 15-year-old boy who killed a woman on the instructions of her husband Anthony Ler was tried jointly with Ler. Both were found guilty and Ler was hanged.

The boy was detained at the President's pleasure, an indefinite jail sentence that Nasir also faces.

According to Singapore's initial report to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, there is no minimum or maximum period of detention.

Cases are reviewed every four years up till the 10th year, when they are reviewed annually. In practice, detainees are considered for release after 13 years.

They can be released only on a presidential order, on Prisons Department recommendations.

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