PUTRAJAYA, July 27 — A man and his girlfriend were spared the gallows by the Court of Appeal today for killing their newborn baby girl who was found with a sock stuffed in her mouth.

Fikri Hakim Kamaruddin, 27, and Nurul Filzatun Sahirah Abdul Aziz, 28, were instead sentenced to 30 years in jail. The court also ordered Fikri to be whipped 12 times.

In dismissing the duo’s appeal on conviction, the three-man panel of judges led by Justice Datuk Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera said after considering the evidence, the court found that the prosecution has proven that there was common intention by the duo to commit the offence.

He also said there was no contradiction in the evidence given by the nurse and the doctor in the trial.

On sentence, Justice Vazeer said at the time the High Court handed down the sentence on the duo in 2021, the punishment for murder was mandatory death.

Justice Vazeer said following the amendment to the law, the mandatory death sentence has been abolished and the court has been given the choice or discretion to impose a death sentence or imprisonment of 30 to 40 years and a minimum 12 strokes of the cane for male offenders.

"After considering the mitigations and the facts of the case, we are using our discretion to replace the death sentence to 30 years in jail for both of the appellants (Fikri and Nurul Filzatun) from the date of arrest,” he said, adding that Fikri would also receive 12 strokes of caning.

The other judges were Justices Datuk Hadhariah Syed Ismail and Datuk Wong Kian Kheong.

This is the first murder case to be heard by the Court of Appeal after the amendment to the law in April this year to abolish the mandatory death sentence. Under the amendment, judges were given the option to impose jail terms instead of the death penalty.

Fikri and Nurul Filzatun were found guilty by the High Court in Johor Baru on October 31, 2021 for killing their baby girl in a house in Taman Bandar Penawar Utama, Bandar Penawar, Kota Tinggi, Johor Baru between 10.50pm on December 12, 2017 and 10.41am the next day.

According to the facts of the case, Nurul Filzatun had given birth to the baby in a house and was brought to the Kota Tinggi Hospital emergency ward after she suffered from bleeding post labour. She informed a nurse at the emergency ward that she had given birth to a baby but the baby was taken by her boyfriend.

On December 5, 2017, Fikri told a police officer that the baby had been buried. He then led a police team to a forest area in Kampung Panti Kota Tinggi where he buried the baby. The team found the baby’s corpse and sent it for a post-mortem.

Autopsy results showed that the baby, who weighed 1.8kg, had been alive at the time of birth and the cause of death was through smothering. The body was found with a small black and blue coloured sock stuffed into her mouth. Both Fikri and Nurul Filzatun were arrested on December 5, 2017.

In mitigation, both Fikri’s counsel Anita Vijaya Rajah and Nurul Filzatun’s lawyer Shaik Saleem Shaik Mohamed Daud asked the court not to impose the death sentence.

Anita Vijaya said her client had been in love with Nurul Filzatun since 2016 and they were victims of circumstances. She said the duo have another child which was given away.

Deputy public prosecutor (DPP) Datuk Mohd Dusuki Mokhtar, who was assisted by DPP Khairul Aisamuddin Abdul Rahman, urged the court to maintain the death sentence, and if the court disagreed with him, he asked the court to impose at least a 35-year jail term on the duo. — Bernama