PUTRAJAYA – A father of five escaped the gallows after the Court of Appeal here today commuted his sentence to 30 years’ jail and 12 strokes of the rotan for his wife’s murder five years ago.
Judge Datuk Hadhariah Syed Ismail, heading a three-member panel, rejected the appeal of former electrician, Taufeeq Mohsein Ahmad Tahir, 38. She said the conviction of the appellant was deemed safe.
Hadhariah, reading the unanimous decision, said the 12th prosecution witness (SP12) and SP13, who are the children of the accused and deceased, were eyewitnesses, and the high court judge had made a factual finding that the two were credible witnesses.
Regarding the punishment, the judge said the court adopted the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, which gives the court discretion to impose the death penalty or imprisonment.
“Therefore, the court set aside the death sentence handed down by the high court and replaced it with a prison sentence of 30 years from the date of arrest (July 7, 2019) and 12 strokes of the rotan,” said Hadhariah, who sat with judges Datuk Azman Abdullah and Datuk Azmi Ariffin.
Taufeeq Mohsein appealed against the decision of the Kuala Lumpur High Court on June 7, 2022 which sentenced him to death after he was found guilty of murdering Siti Noorasny Md Zain at the Desa Tun Razak PPR, Cheras between 8pm on July 6, 2019 and 2.48 am on July 7, 2019, according to Section 302 of the Penal Code.
Earlier, Taufeeq Mohsein’s lawyer M. Manoharan argued that there was no evidence that the two siblings (SP12 and SP13) witnessed the incident as both of them could not confirm what happened on the day in question.
According to Manoharan, there is serious doubt as to whether injuries or other things caused the death of the deceased following the chemical report and autopsy clearly showing the presence of drugs in the blood and bile of the deceased.
“The deceased was a ‘drug addict’ and it is possible that the drugs taken by the deceased could have caused death,” said Manoharan, who appeared together with co-counsels Johan Ariff and M. Hariharan.
Deputy public prosecutor Eyu Ghim Siang argued that there were 51 injuries on the deceased and this finding was supported by the testimony of SP11, who was the pathologist who performed the autopsy on the body of the deceased.
“SP11 in his testimony said the pattern of injuries on the deceased was caused by a blunt object and not because the deceased fell on her own. SP11 believed the cause of the deceased’s death was due to ‘multiple blunt force trauma to the body’,” he said.
Eyu also said that the testimony from SP12 and SP13, who are child witnesses, showed that their father hit, punched and kicked the deceased.
“SP12 saw the appellant holding the ‘blunt object’ and hitting the deceased with it while SP13 saw his father punching and kicking their mother,” he added. – February 26, 2024