[1] The corpse of the victim, 24-year-old computer engineer Noor Suzaily Mukhtar, was later found at a construction site, and autopsy reports confirmed that she was raped and sodomized before her death via strangulation.

Hanafi was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death in April 2002 and additionally given a 20-year jail term with 12 strokes of the cane for rape.

[4][5] Noor Suzaily Mukhtar (nicknamed "Suzy"), the third child of her family and graduate of De Montfort University, had just returned from the United Kingdom and took up a new job as a computer engineer when she was killed.

One of the witnesses was A. Devan, an 18-year-old student cycling to a tuition centre, and the other three were a motorcyclist, a man in his 50s, and a driving school instructor.

After this, the bus driver arrived at a secluded area in Taman Bukit Tinggi, where he assaulted, raped and sodomized Noor Suzaily, before he used her hijab to strangle her to death.

[6][11] Her body was later returned to her family, and after a funeral, Noor Suzaily was buried at a cemetery in Kangar, Perlis, the place of her birth.

The driver, who confessed to the crime,[13] brought the police to the drain where he had thrown away the victim's handbag, which contained her personal documents.

Under Malaysian law, a charge of murder warranted the mandatory death penalty, while the offence of rape carried the maximum jail term of 20 years with caning.

Hanafi had also appeared in court in 1994 for a charge of criminal breach of trust in Subang Jaya, Selangor, and he was convicted in 1996 of robbery with hurt in Chukai, Terengganu and served 30 months in prison (plus two strokes of the cane) for this offence.

[21] On 12 March 2001, Hanafi Mat Hassan stood trial at the Shah Alam High Court for the rape and murder of Noor Suzaily Mukhtar.

[36] On 19 December 2008, eight years after the murder of Noor Suzaily Mukhtar, 42-year-old Hanafi Mat Hassan was hanged at dawn in Kajang Prison.

Hanafi's body was taken to Kajang Hospital for an autopsy before it was returned to his family, who brought it back to his hometown in Binjai, Kelantan.

[38][39] The murder of Noor Suzaily Mukhtar made headlines and caused much shock to the public, and many, including then-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, condemned Hanafi Mat Hassan for his heinous acts.

Gerakan secretary general Mak Kah Keong expressed support for the abolition, but expressed that there was a greater need for scrunity on the matter, stating that capital punishment should still remain for certain cases that were particularly heinous and called for such a high penalty, such as the Noor Suzaily case and the 2003 rape-murder of Canny Ong, and it would be able to achieve the true purpose of justice for the victims.