The final chapter was closed in one of Malaysia's most sensational murder cases yesterday when the Court of Appeal dismissed a bid by a faith healing couple and an assistant to overturn their conviction for hacking a politician to death.
The victim, Mazlan Idris, a member of the Pahang State Assembly, approached the bomohs for help in defeating political rivals.
He was killed and robbed while being given a mandi bunga , or ritual bath, to wash away his bad luck in July, 1993. His body was cut up into 18 parts and buried under his house.
The case, which attracted intense public interest and received extensive media coverage, had in addition to the riveting ingredients of politics and mysticism, the glamour of the smartly-dressed and coiffured Mona Fandey.
Fandey, then 38, greeted media cameras with a dazzling smile before and after she was convicted of murder together with her husband, Mohamad Affendy and the assistant, Juraimi Hussin.
Evidence was given at the trial of blood spurting from the victim when he was chopped with an axe at the same time as Fandey was pouring water on him from a basin as part of the bathing ritual.