If you were around in the ’90s, you probably would have heard of the chilling murder trial involving local pop star-turned-‘bomoh‘, Mona Fandey. If you don’t really remember, here’s a brief summary of what happened.
Back in 1993, Mona Fandey was providing her ‘bomoh‘ services to a Pahang state assemblyman named Mazlan Idris to help him become more successful in politics.
She reportedly received a whopping RM500,000 and RM2 million worth of land titles as payment, too!
One service Mona Fandey offered to the state assemblyman was a cleansing ritual, which took place after she received the huge payments.
On that fateful day of the appointment, she told Idris to lie with his back on the floor while placing flowers all over him and told him to close his eyes to wait for “money to fall from the sky”. Then, her assistant chopped his head off with an axe.
She was tried for murder in 2001 in a high profile court case, and was ultimately sentenced to death by hanging.
Mona Fandey’s chilling court case has since caught the attention of many Malaysians, who were haunted by the brutality of the murder.
In 2006, five years after she passed on, a local film depicting the incident, titled Dukun was made, but was soon banned in Malaysia by the National Film Censorship Board (LPF) in 2007 before its screening because its plot offended the families of the people portrayed in the movie.
Now, more than 10 years later, the banned movie has recently been leaked online, angering the director-general of the National Film Development Corporation (Finas), Datuk Fauzi Ayob. According to the New Straits Times, he said,
“We’ve been working closely with the Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Ministry, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) and the Malaysian Film Producers’ Association (PFM) to crack down on film piracy, especially live streaming on social media.”
“It’s a gross violation of intellectual property and once again, we want to warn the public that it’s a serious offence.”
Meanwhile, Dukun‘s producer, Najwa Abu Bakar, commented, “We fully support the authorities investigating the alleged leak.”
Well, let’s hope the authorities handle this issue accordingly. Remember guys, piracy is a crime!
Also read: 5 Incredibly Creepy Murder Cases That Happened in Malaysia