Aung Kyaw Saw, 37, was acquitted and discharged of killing Tin Mar Moe, 20, at their flat in Taman Belimbing at 7.30pm on May 26, 2017.

He was charged with murder under Section 302 of the Penal Code, which carries the death penalty upon conviction. Both were workers at an electronics factory in Seberang Perai.

In ordering the release of Saw today, the court found that the witness statement and the forensic findings were vastly different, and that key evidence such as the murder weapon was not produced in court.

Judicial commissioner Mohd Radzi Abdul Hamid said a witness statement by a factory bus driver had claimed that Saw held Moe by the neck and stabbed her with a knife once.

However, he said a pathologist testified that there were six stab wounds, two slash wounds and four abrasions on Moe’s body. The pathologist also said the victim had put up a fight before she was killed.

Radzi said that because of the incongruence of the evidence presented, it was not safe for the court to rely on the testimony of the bus driver.

He said the evidential items such as a knife suspected to be used as a murder weapon and blood-soaked clothes were never sent for forensic testing for DNA and blood profiling.

Radzi said it was later revealed by an investigating officer that the evidence had gone missing from police custody.

K Simon Murali appeared for Saw while deputy public prosecutor Farah Aimy Zainul prosecuted.