PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal has commuted a married couple’s death sentence to a maximum jail term of 40 years for the murder of their daughter. Justices Hadhariah Syed Ismail, Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim, and S.M.Komathy Suppiah upheld the conviction against Anuar Yusof and his wife Murni Ahmad, ruling that their appeals lacked merits. Justice Hadhariah, delivering the unanimous decision, stated that there was overwhelming evidence that 22-year-old Siti Hajar died due to the neglect, abuse, and starvation inflicted upon her by the couple over a period of three to six months. The court set aside the death sentence imposed by the High Court and replaced it with a 40-year imprisonment, ordering the couple to begin serving their sentence from the date of their arrest on April 26, 2016.
“This is a very sad case and the worst case under Section 302 of the Penal Code that we have read,” said Justice Hadhariah. The amendment made to Section 302 of the Penal Code allows the court to impose a jail term of 30 to 40 years on offenders instead of the death penalty. Male offenders will also be subjected to a minimum of 12 strokes of whipping.
Anuar, 57, and Murni, 42, were convicted by the High Court in 2021 for the murder of Siti Hajar at a house in Chukai. Their two other children, Siti Sarah Anuar and her 14-year-old brother at the time, were also charged but were acquitted and discharged by the High Court. The prosecution’s appeal was struck out in January last year due to the failure to serve the notice to the couple.
Siti Hajar weighed approximately 18kg at the time of her death. She lived with her biological father, step-mother, older sister, and younger brother in a rented house since 2008. The body showed extreme emaciation, wounds on the head, bruises on her body and anus, and 36 human bite marks on her back, hands, feet, and genital area. A forensic expert confirmed that Siti Hajar died from bacterial infection in the lungs and anus resulting from abuse, starvation, and neglect.
In the trial, a witness testified that Siti Hajar’s siblings were required to beat her before being allowed to eat. Anuar and Murni’s lawyer, Ghazali Ismail, represented the couple, while the prosecution was led by deputy public prosecutor Norzilati Izhani Zainal. – Bernama
Credit: The Star : News Feed
