Going to prison: Mohd Fazli was first sentenced to hang on Sept 22, 2010, by the Shah Alam High Court.
PUTRAJAYA: A former taxi driver convicted of killing his girlfriend’s three-year-old daughter has escaped the gallows.
The Federal Court upheld an 18-year jail term imposed on Mohd Fazli Azri Jamil for manslaughter.
Justice Abdull Hamid Embong, who chaired a five-man panel, yesterday dismissed the prosecution’s appeal to impose the death penalty on the man.
“The sentence and conviction is upheld,” Justice Abdull Hamid said in unanimous decision.
In the panel were Federal Court judges Justices Hasan Lah, Jeffrey Tan Kok Wha, Abu Samah Nordin and Ramly Ali.
The Shah Alam High Court had sentenced Mohd Fazli to death on Sept 22, 2010, but the Court of Appeal overturned the verdict and found him guilty of manslaughter instead in July 2013.
Earlier, Deputy Public Prosecutor Tengku Amir Zaki Tengku Abd Rahman said that Mohd Fazli had caused the death of Syafiah Humaira Sahari by kicking and stepping on her with his football boots.
“His statement that the girl had fallen from a motorcycle was a lie. The apex court should uphold the decision of the Shah Alam High Court which imposed the death sentence,” he argued.
However, his lawyer Gurbachan Singh contended that there were doubts in the case, saying that his client had given a consistent story to the police and in court over the injuries suffered by the girl due to a fall from a motorcycle.
“The Court of Appeal was correct in reducing the charge to manslaughter in July 2013,” he said.
The girl’s mother, sales assistant Siti Nurhanim Aziz, told the media then that she still loved Mohd Fazli and that he loved her daughter very much.
The man was 28 at the time.
In his ruling, High Court judge Justice Mohtarudin Baki found Mohd Fazli guilty of murdering the girl by kicking and stepping on her with his football boots at a football field on Feb 25, 2010.
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