KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 20 — Jamaluddin Ali will face the hangman after the High Court convicted him today for causing the violent death of his wife Nurhidayah A. Ghani three years ago.
In her judgment of the case that cast a spotlight on Malaysian domestic abuses, High Court judge Amelia Tee Hong Geok Abdullah noted the “horrendous injuries” suffered by Nurhidayah prior to her death.
“The court cannot even begin to imagine the pain and agony that the deceased had to suffer before her death,” she said.
“In this case, the accused’s version is not even a remote possibility. In light of the court’s findings as above, the court finds the accused has not succeeded in raising a reasonable doubt in the truth of the prosecution,” she said in pronouncing the guilty verdict.
Jamaluddin was charged under Section 302 of the Penal Code with causing his wife’s death between the period of 9pm on May 15 to 9pm on May 17, 2013, when she was rushed to hospital for treatment.
The judge noted the doctor who examined her that day had testified to the large number of injuries to Nurhidayah from “repeated blows” to her head, face, body, upper and lower limbs within a short period, with bleeding also occurring from repeated blows to the head.
The judge went through Jamaluddin’s defence, where he had claimed to have only slapped Nurhidayah twice and kicked her twice on May 15 and had not assaulted her on the next two days.
Jamaluddin had also suggested that an unknown person seen fleetingly outside his house had assaulted his wife shortly before his discovery of her at their house on May 17, the judge noted.
But the judge rejected his vague suggestion as an attempt to cast the blame elsewhere.
“The court rejects [suggestion of] this mysterious and unknown assailant, because there’s simply no evidence to support it,” she said.
The judge also said that Jamaluddin’s defence lacked “both truth and possibility”, highlighting that three others including Jamaluddin’s sister had testified of his assaults and multiple slaps on Nurhidayah while they were all in a multi-purpose vehicle on May 15.
“The court finds the accused was not telling the truth when he portrayed himself as a non-violent gentleman merely tightly holding the deceased’s hand when testimony of other three witnesses say otherwise,” she said.
The judge noted that his account of events contradicted multiple eyewitness accounts from his friends who saw him hitting and kicking his wife at his home on May 15 and were even forced to intervene.
She also cited the testimony of one of the couple’s four children — a 10-year-old — who spoke of how Jamaluddin had beaten Nurhidayah on her arms, body and pulled her hair on May 16.
“The court is aghast that the accused had no qualms about assaulting the children’s mother when the children are at home,” she said.
Having earlier noted that Jamaluddin’s alibi defence was only partial as it did not cover the entire period where the crime was said to have occurred and could not be proven satisfactorily, the judge also said that his claim that he did not know of Nurhidayah’s condition before finding her unresponsive on May 17 together with his friend was completely different to his friend’s testimony.
Jamaluddin had claimed he did not enter the bedroom where the wife was after he finished work until his friend came along, while his friend said Jamaluddin had in a phone call asked him to come as the wife was allegedly “nyawa-nyawa ikan” or on the verge of dying, the judge noted.
Lead prosecutor Suhaimi Ibrahim said two witnesses had testified for the accused while there were 24 prosecution witnesses.
Prior to her death, Nurhidayah and her family had filed over 10 police reports against her husband between 2009 and 2013 for abuse, according to a women’s rights advocacy group.
Women’s Aid Organisation, which has been keeping tabs of the case, said Jamaluddin had physically and psychologically abused Nurhidayah for over a decade since 2003.
According to the group, Nurhidayah had her head dashed into a wall, beaten with a helmet and a fishing rod; her husband had even attempted to strangle her previously.
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