A UNIVERSITY student has been found guilty of murdering his mother's lover in a violent ''honour killing''.
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A NSW Supreme Court jury yesterday found Andrew Iskandar killed a Malaysian consulate worker, Mohd Shah Saemin, 43, outside his Leichhardt home in February last year.
However, he was found not guilty of soliciting an inmate to murder a Crown witness to whom he allegedly confessed.
The jury is yet to reach a verdict on his mother, Nita Iskandar, who is charged with being an accessory after the fact by helping her son to leave the country to evade capture following Mr Saemin's death. The jury will continue its deliberations today.
The court heard that in 2008 a romantic relationship developed between Mr Saemin and Mrs Iskandar, who were colleagues at the Malaysian consulate in Sydney.
The relationship soon became a talking point within Sydney's Indonesian community and the Crown alleged that on becoming aware of the affair, Iskandar and his father began planning Mr Saemin's murder to protect family honour.
His father, Mrs Iskandar's husband, is yet to face trial and cannot be named.
Mrs Iskandar told the court she was on the phone to her lover when his Volvo was rammed by her husband's car and she heard him scream for help.
The prosecution said Iskandar and his father got out of the car and chased Mr Saemin down Marion Street with a knife and a hammer before he was fatally stabbed.
Nada Bayley, a passer-by who tried to protect Mr Saemin, told the court that the attackers kicked her out of the way and ''bashed his brains in with the hammer … like a piece of meat''.
Iskandar, who pleaded not guilty, said he thought he was going on a driving lesson.
''If my mother had one or 10 affairs it doesn't bother me … not in the slightest,'' Iskandar said in cross-examination.
When a fight broke out between his father and Mr Saemin, he was punched, Iskandar said. His father handed him a hammer and said, ''hit the bastard'' and he did so, but only to defend himself.
The jury rejected the prosecution's claim that Iskandar had confessed the murder to a friend, Victor Lau, and when Mr Lau refused to provide a false alibi, offered another inmate about $10,000 to ''do a job on [Mr Lau]'' when he got out.
Sentencing submissions will be heard on February 2.
