KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 18 — The prosecution can still review a murder charge in Terengganu against a teenage girl aged slightly below 15 over her newborn son’s death from stab wounds, by taking into account an investigation into the girl’s rape, the Attorney General’s Chambers (AGC) said today.
The AGC said the decision to charge the girl — aged 14 years and 11 month old — with murder was based on the criminal justice process and evidence, but indicated this was still open to review.
“However, the prosecution can still scrutinise and review the decision for the original charge under Section 302 of the Penal Code to other charges after taking into account additional developments, including the outcome of investigation of the rape incident on this child,” the AGC said in a statement today.
Earlier, the AGC noted that the Terengganu state prosecution office had received an investigation paper regarding the death of a baby who was born on February 8 at a house in the Kemaman district in Terengganu.
The AGC said the investigation paper was in relation to a police report lodged on February 8 by a medical officer at the Klinik Kesihatan Seri Bandi in Kemaman, Terengganu, with the medical officer being on duty at the clinic when a woman had at around 9am on February 8 informed the clinic’s counter staff of a childbirth at home.
The AGC said that the medical officer together with a team arrived at the house at 9.15am and saw a woman holding a baby near the kitchen sink, with the medical officer also reporting to have found that the baby’s umbilical cord had been cut with a sharp object.
The AGC said the Terengganu state prosecution director’s office had then allowed the teenage girl to be prosecuted under Section 302 of the Penal — which punishes murder as a criminal offence — in relation to the newborn’s death, after having considered the investigation outcome.
The AGC said that the murder charge was pressed based on witnesses’ testimony and documentation and the forensic officer’s testimony and the pathologist’s confirmation that the newborn’s umbilical cord had been cut with a sharp object and that there were other injuries such as from a stabbing.
“The prosecution on that child is a transparent criminal justice process without the influence of any dorongan (motivation) and was based on the evidence alone,” the AGC said.
The AGC went on to say that information regarding the rape incident was only made known after the teenage girl was arrested and where she then lodged a police report on February 8.
The AGC said an investigation paper was opened in relation to the police report on the rape and the investigation is ongoing.
As for the criminal case against the teenage girl, the AGC said the teenage girl would be put on trial according to the judicial process under the Child Act 2001, as she falls under the definition of a child under this law.
The AGC also said that the child would be ordered to be detained under Section 97(2) of the Child Act if convicted of the murder charge, but also later went on to indicate that alternative charges could be pressed against the girl.
Under Section 302, the punishment for the murder offence is death.
Under Section 97(1), a death sentence shall not be pronounced if a person is convicted of an offence committed when he was a child, while Section 97(2) states that the court shall order a person convicted of an offence to be detained in prison in lieu of or instead of a death sentence.
On February 15, the teenage girl was charged with murder at the Magistrates’ Court in Kemaman, Terengganu, with her plea for bail rejected by the court.
The murder offence under Section 302 is non-bailable, but Section 388 of the Criminal Procedure Code allows for exceptions to be made if the person charged is either sick, a minor aged below 16 or a female.
The Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) on February 16 said it was horrified over the murder charge against the girl and urged for a revisit of the decision to charge her, highlighting that the girl is said to be a rape victim and the newborn child was allegedly conceived due to the rape.
