2019 Ampang rape and murder

On 19 September 2019, 85-year-old Wong Chooi was found dead inside her flat at Jalan Tasik Tambahan, Ampang, Selangor, Malaysia, by her son. Her hands were tied, her head was covered with cloth, her mouth was taped and stuffed with cloth, and her pants had been pulled down. Post-mortem examinations found semen marks on her body and determined that she had been raped and sodomized before her death, which was certified as caused by suffocation due to gagging. Wong lived with an unmarried son and was described by relatives as a devout Buddhist with mild dementia who was otherwise able to care for herself.

In the initial stage of the investigation, police detained Wong's 61-year-old second son after neighbours reported hearing arguments from the flat and due to his prior convictions; he was released without charge in early October 2019 after police confirmed he was not involved. On 9 October 2019, police matched fingerprints and DNA from the scene to K. Sathiaraj (Sathiaraj a/l Kundaiah), a 27-year-old homeless former lorry attendant with previous convictions for drug and property offences. He was arrested the next day in Bandar Puchong Jaya and tested positive for methamphetamine. On 22 October 2019, he was charged at a magistrate's court in Ampang with murder, rape and carnal intercourse against the order of nature (sodomy).

At trial before the Shah Alam High Court beginning 2 December 2021, Sathiaraj pleaded guilty to the rape and sodomy charges but contested the murder charge. The prosecution's case, based on testimony from 19 witnesses, was that Sathiaraj had broken into Wong's flat intending to rob her, restrained and gagged her to prevent her from screaming, raped and sodomized her, and stole a gold chain, which he later had a friend help pawn. The defence argued diminished responsibility due to drug influence. On 26 August 2022, Justice Datuk Ab Karim Ab Rahman found that Sathiaraj had acted with conscious intent, rejecting the diminished-responsibility argument, and convicted him of murder, sentencing him to death by hanging in addition to 13 years' imprisonment and five strokes of the cane for rape.

Sathiaraj appealed his murder conviction and death sentence. In April 2023, Malaysia abolished the mandatory death penalty while his appeal was pending. On 27 February 2024, the Court of Appeal unanimously dismissed his appeal, rejecting an insanity defence argument and upholding both the conviction and the death sentence. He did not appeal the separate rape and sodomy sentence. On 13 January 2025, the Federal Court of Malaysia allowed a further appeal on sentence, upholding the murder conviction but commuting the death sentence to 40 years' imprisonment and 12 strokes of the cane.