PUTRAJAYA, Jan 17 (Bernama) — A former foreman was sentenced to 30 years in jail by the Court of Appeal for the murder of his two-year-old stepson in 2019.
Mohammad Sofiyuddin Abu Bakar, 34, was initially sentenced to 16 years and six months in jail by the High Court for a lesser charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
However, following an appeal by the prosecution, the Court of Appeal overturned the High Court’s decision and convicted him of murder.
A three-man bench led by Justice Datuk Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim, Datuk Azizul Azmi Adnan and Datuk Ahmad Kamal Md Shahid ruled that the High Court judge had made an error when she amended the charge from murder to culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
Justice Ahmad Zaidi, who delivered the court’s unanimous decision yesterday, also held that the High Court judge erred in her ruling that the prosecution failed to prove the element of intent to kill the child.
The court allowed the prosecution’s appeal to overturn the decision of the High Court after ruling that the appeal had merits.
In addition to the prison sentence, to be served from the date of arrest on May 26, 2019, the court also ordered Mohammad Sofiyuddin to be given 12 strokes of the cane.
Mohammad Sofiyuddin was initially charged with the murder of Muhammad Aqil Hairi Mohd Azrul. The murder took place at an unnumbered house in Jalan Yan-Guar Chempendak, Guar Chempedak, Kedah between 7.30 pm and 8 pm on May 25, 2019.
On July 4, 2023, the High Court in Sungai Petani, Kedah, convicted him on an amended charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and sentenced him to 16 years and six months in jail.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Eyu Ghim Siang appearing for the prosecution had sought a murder conviction.
Mohammad Sofiyuddin, represented by lawyers Ai Cha Ran and Surachetth Jotsuwan, had claimed that the child fell from a table onto the floor and a dumbbell.
However, a post-mortem revealed that the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the abdomen, and the injuries sustained by the child were inconsistent with a fall.
According to the facts of the case, the child's mother had left her son in Mohammad Sofiyuddin's care while she went to work that day.
— BERNAMA
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