Mona Fandey
Encyclopedia
Witch doctor
A witch doctor originally referred to a type of healer who treated ailments believed to be caused by witchcraft. It is currently used to refer to healers in some third world regions, who use traditional healing rather than contemporary medicine...
, and a murderess from Malaysia. She was executed on November 2, 2001 at the age of 45, after being convicted of the murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
of a politician, Mazlan Idris, in 1993.
Music career
Mona's stint as a pop singerPop Singer
"Pop Singer" is the début single from London-based glam rockers Rachel Stamp. It was released in February, 1996 through WEA. The single was released as a 2 track CD Single and limited edition pink 7" vinyl of 1000 copies...
was short-lived. It was during this time she adopted the stage name "Mona Fandey" to boost her popularity. Her career did not really take off, but she still managed to come up with one self-sponsored album entitled Diana and made a few television appearances. She was also a water ballet dancer during her youth.
The murder
After leaving the music business, she became involved in spiritual witchcraft activities and was known to be a bomohBomoh
A bomoh or dukun is a Malay shaman. The bomoh's original role was that of a healer and their expertise was first and foremost an in-depth knowledge of medicinal herbs and tajul muluk or Malay geomancy...
, a local shaman
Shamanism
Shamanism is an anthropological term referencing a range of beliefs and practices regarding communication with the spiritual world. To quote Eliade: "A first definition of this complex phenomenon, and perhaps the least hazardous, will be: shamanism = technique of ecstasy." Shamanism encompasses the...
. She began offering her services to clients, mostly from the upper-class society. She also claimed to have provided politician clients in the ruling UMNO party with a variety of charms and talismans.
It was reported that Mazlan Idris, a state assemblyman for the constituency of Batu Talam
Batu Talam
Batu Talam is a small town and village in Raub district, Pahang, Malaysia.-Notable events:*1993 – Former Pahang's DUN Batu Talam assemblyman Dato' Mazlan Idris was murdered by Mona Fandey, Affandy, and Juraimi....
in the state of Pahang
Pahang
Pahang is the third largest state in Malaysia, after Sarawak and Sabah, occupying the huge Pahang River river basin. It is bordered to the north by Kelantan, to the west by Perak, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, to the south by Johor and to the east by Terengganu and the South China Sea.Its state...
, wanted to boost his political career and sought the services of Mona for assistance. Mazlan was educated in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and was an ambitious politician from the ruling United Malays National Organisation
United Malays National Organisation
The United Malays National Organisation, is Malaysia's largest political party; a founding member of the National Front coalition, which has played a dominant role in Malaysian politics since independence....
(UMNO) party. At that time, Mona worked with her husband Mohamad Nor Affandi Abdul Rahman, 44, and their assistant Juraimi Hassan, 31. Mona and her husband promised to help Mazlan by giving him a talisman consisting of a cane and sbatmi
Sbatmi
Sbatmi are Malayan amulets made from the seeds of the oil palm.Shamanic healers will identify the single sbatmi from a cluster of oil palm fruit and laboriously prepare it for rituals. The oil palm seeds are polished and then rinsed in holy water. It looks like a black pearl in its finished state...
headgear which was supposedly owned by former Indonesian
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
President Sukarno
Sukarno
Sukarno, born Kusno Sosrodihardjo was the first President of Indonesia.Sukarno was the leader of his country's struggle for independence from the Netherlands and was Indonesia's first President from 1945 to 1967...
. Mona convinced Mazlan that he would be "invincible" if he held the talisman. In return, Mona demanded RM
Malaysian ringgit
The Malaysian ringgit is the currency of Malaysia. It is divided into 100 sen...
2.5 million. Mazlan paid the couple RM 500,000 as deposit, and gave them 10 land titles as surety for the remaining RM 2 million.
An appointment was made for cleansing rituals to be performed at Mona's house. Mazlan was told to lie on the floor face up while Mona placed flowers on him. She then told Mazlan to close his eyes and wait for the money to "fall from the sky". Juraimi then, using an axe, chopped Mazlan's head off. They also dismembered and partially skinned Mazlan's body. His body was found in 18 parts buried in a storeroom near Mona's house in Pahang
Pahang
Pahang is the third largest state in Malaysia, after Sarawak and Sabah, occupying the huge Pahang River river basin. It is bordered to the north by Kelantan, to the west by Perak, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, to the south by Johor and to the east by Terengganu and the South China Sea.Its state...
.
Trial and execution
Mazlan was reported missing on July 2, 1993 after withdrawing RM 300,000 from a bank. After the murder, Mona was reported to have been on a shopping spree where she bought a Mercedes-Benz and had a facelift. It was alleged that the murder occurred between 10:00 PM and 12 midnight on July 18, 1993. On July 22, 1993, police found Mazlan's body; Mona, her husband, and Juraimi were arrested and a highly publicized trial began. They were tried in TemerlohTemerloh
Temerloh is a town in Central Pahang, Malaysia in Temerloh district. Located about from Kuala Lumpur along the Kuantan-Kuala Lumpur trunk road, Temerloh is the second largest town in Pahang after Kuantan. It is situated at the junction of the Pahang River and the Semantan River...
High Court by a 7-person jury (trial by jury was abolished from January 1, 1995). The High Court found all three of them guilty and sentenced them to death
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
by hanging
Hanging
Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...
. Mona and the others filed appeals to the Federal Court and in 1999 the court dismissed their appeals and upheld the death sentence. Finally, the three convicts sought to obtain a pardon
Pardon
Clemency means the forgiveness of a crime or the cancellation of the penalty associated with it. It is a general concept that encompasses several related procedures: pardoning, commutation, remission and reprieves...
or clemency from the Pardons Board of Pahang, their final chance redemption. However, the board refused to give clemency. Mona, Affandy, and Juraimi were finally hanged on November 2, 2001 at Kajang Prison. A prison official said the trio expressed no remorse at the pre-dawn execution.
Throughout the trial, Mona exhibited strange behaviour including appearing cheerful, constantly smiling and posing for press photographers. She dressed extravagantly with bright and colorful designs on her dress. She also remarked, "looks like I have many fans". It was also reported that during her execution she uttered the words "aku takkan mati", meaning "I will never die", and was still calm and smiling. The last female executed in Malaysia had been Tan Bee Lee in 1994 for a drug trafficking offence.
Publicity
Mona Fandey became more popular than she had been when she was still a pop singer. There was wide local and even international media coverage and plenty of public interest. Anti-death penalty movements including Amnesty InternationalAmnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
voiced their opposition to the execution of the trio. In 2002, Malaysian film director Amir Muhammad
Amir Muhammad (director)
Amir Muhammad is a writer and independent filmmaker based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He was born on December 5, 1972 in Kuala Lumpur and was educated at the University of East Anglia. He has been writing for Malaysian print media since the age of 14, notably the New Straits Times.In 2000, he wrote...
made a short film entitled Mona in his 6horts series. In 2006, a film by Dain Iskandar Said entitled Dukun
Dukun (film)
Dukun is a 2007 Malaysian horror film. The film is loosely based on the true story of the murder of a Malaysian politician, Datuk Mazlan Idris, by Mona Fandey, a once mildly popular Malaysian singer in 1993...
was widely assumed to be based on Mona Fandey. This highly anticipated film has not been released as of December 2011 and will most likely not be released for public screenings due to concerns relating to the contents of the film, the relationship with Mona Fandey, and the implications for her family.