PUTRAJAYA: The Federal Court today upheld the 40-year prison sentence imposed on a married couple convicted of murdering their 22-year-old daughter in 2016.
A three-judge panel led by Court of Appeal President Tan Sri Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim unanimously dismissed the appeals filed by Anuar Yusof and his wife, Murni Ahmad.
The other two judges are Federal Court judges Datuk Abu Bakar Jais and Datuk Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil,
Justice Abang Iskandar said the couple's conviction was secure, saying that evidence presented during the trial clearly showed their intent to murder their daughter.
The court also dismissed the prosecution's appeal to reinstate the death penalty, maintaining that the 40-year sentence was appropriate and not manifestly inadequate.
Anuar, 57, and Murni, 42, were found guilty by the High Court in 2021 of murdering Siti Hajar Anuar at a house in Taman Semarak, Binjai Chukai, Kemaman, Terengganu, at 10.45 pm on April 26, 2016. They were sentenced to death.
The couple appealed against their conviction and death sentence. Last year, the Court of Appeal upheld the couple's conviction but commuted their death sentences to 40 years in prison.
Apart from the couple, two of their children, Siti Sarah Anuar and her brother (who was 14 years old at the time of the incident) were also charged with murdering Siti Hajar, but they were acquitted and discharged by the High Court.
The prosecution filed an appeal but it was struck out on Jan 10, 2022, as they could not serve the notice of appeal to them.
Siti Hajar weighed around 18 kg when she died. She had been staying with her biological father and stepmother, an older sister and a younger brother in a rented house.
The facts of the case revealed that Siti Hajar was extremely emaciated with no flesh and only skin and bones. She had wounds on the head and bruises on her body including her anus.
A forensic expert who examined the body confirmed that Siti Hajar died due to bacterial infection in the lungs and anus caused by abuse, starvation and neglect. She also had 36 human bite marks on her back, both hands and feet and on her genital area.
A witness testified in the trial that whenever Siti Hajar's siblings wanted to eat, they were required to beat her up first and only after that would their mother allow them to eat.
During the proceedings today, lawyer Ghazali Ismail, assisted by counsel Ahmad Nur Faid Afiq Aziz, argued that the charges against the couple should be reduced for an offence of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
Meanwhile, Deputy Public Prosecutor Roshan Karthi Kayan, who sought to restore the death sentence, said the gruesome nature of the crime had reduced the deceased to a skeletal state, a sight that never existed in Malaysia. - BERNAMA