By M. MAGESWARI

A LECTURER who wanted sexual favours from a woman in return for help in her appeal to be reinstated into UiTM seven years ago was murdered by her boyfriend and two others.

The boyfriend, sales executive Sulkarnain Alias, 32, was outraged when his girlfriend Siti Rahmah Azman Subramaniam, now 28, told him about Bakarudin Busu's advances towards her.

He and his two accomplices then killed Bakarudin at Jalan SS19/6 in Subang Jaya at about 9.30pm on Feb 12, 2002.

On Friday, the Kuala Lumpur High Court sentenced Sulkarnaian and forklift driver Noorman Ab Wahab, 31, to death for the crime.

The third accused - former Institut Kemahiran Bina Negara student Azizul Azual Jailani, 26, who was also convicted of the murder - will be sentenced on Dec 11, pending a probation report as he was a youthful offender at the time of the crime.

Former guest relations officer, Siti Rahmah, had testified that Bakarudin had called her many times, asking her to spend a night with him in return for help in her appeal to be reinstated.

She told the court that she had flatly refused to go to bed with Bakarudin and had informed Sulkarnain about the calls, adding that he told her on the night of the murder that Bakarudin had been killed.

Siti Rahmah, who was orginally charged with the same crime, was given a discharge not amounting to an acquittal in July 2003 and turned prosecution witness.

Another co-accused Muhammad Zakwan Ahmad Zaki, 26, also a former student at the institute, was acquitted in August 2007.

In delivering his judgment on Friday, Judge Justice Muhamad Ideres Muhamad Rapee said the prosecution had proven the charge against the three men beyond reasonable doubt.

'There is only one sentence that the court can pass on you and therefore, you will be taken to a place and hanged to death,' he told the men.

They had committed the crime at Jalan SS19/6 in Subang Jaya at about 9.30pm on Feb 12, 2002.

The charred remains of Bakarudin, 35, who had been kicked, punched and slashed to death before being torched, were found in a monsoon drain that night.

Justice Muhamad Ideres said evidence also showed that Azizul had borrowed his brother's ornamental sword and took it to the place of the incident.