KUALA LUMPUR: ‘My darling’ – those were the last words uttered by Arab-Malaysian Banking (AmBank) Group founder Hussain Ahmad Najadi to his wife, Cheong Mei Kuen, before he died, the High Court heard yesterday.
Cheong, 49, told the court that her husband uttered the words after he was shot on the chest at the car park of the Kuan Yin Temple here on July 29 last year.
“While I was soothing the pain on my husband’s chest, he (the accused) shot him again on the chest and I looked at my husband, and called him ‘darling’, but he did not answer. After that he looked at me, and his last words to me were ‘my darling’ and then he left me,” said Cheong, who was in tears when recalling the incident.
She said this during examination-in-chief by Deputy Public Prosecutor Yusaini Amer Abd Karim in the trial of Koong Swee Kwan, 45, who is charged with murdering Hussain, 75, at the car park of the Kuan Yin Temple at No.4 Lorong Ceylon, here on July 29 last year.
Koong is also charged with attempting to murder Cheong.
At the outset, the seventh prosecution witness told the court that when she was walking out from the temple, she heard sound of firecrackers, and then her husband turned to her and said ‘darling’ before she fell to the ground.
Cheong said she heard more explosions before her husband fell on her, adding that she also felt pain on her left hand, before she felt someone dragging her and placed her in a car.
“I heard somebody said ‘Tung Shin Hospital’ and the next thing I remembered was I was in an emergency room in a hospital,” she added.
When asked further on her feeling after the incident, Cheong said: “I was very sad, I don’t want him to go, I want to be with him”.
She also explained that she and her husband went to the temple to meet three individuals to discuss a property located outside the temple.
The hearing before Justice Datuk Mohd Azman Husin continues today. — Bernama