KUALA LUMPUR : A Malaysian man was on Wednesday sentenced to death after a court found him guilty of raping and murdering a 28-year-old US-based IT analyst in a grisly case that has shocked the nation.
A High Court sentenced Ahmad Najib Aris, 29, to hang for killing Canny Ong Lay Kian in June 2003, the national news agency Bernama said.
High Court Justice Muhamad Ideres Muhamad Rapee also ordered Ahmad Najib, a former aircraft cabin cleaner, to be given 10 strokes of the cane for raping the victim.
"I don't have any fear (of death). I feel perfectly normal.. this is what I have expected," Ahmad Najib, who appeared calm when the sentence was passed, was quoted as saying.
He had chosen to remain silent during the trial and not make his defence.
Canny Ong, who was married to a US citizen, was abducted in the parking lot of a shopping mall in an upmarket Kuala Lumpur suburb while visiting her parents in Malaysia.
She was raped and murdered, and her burnt body was found several days later in a manhole. - AFP