High Court upholds 5-year jail term for Zayn Rayyan’s mother

The High Court here has dismissed an appeal by Zayn Rayyan Abdul Matin’s mother to set aside her conviction and five-year prison sentence for neglecting her six-year-old son, whose body was found in a stream near their home in December 2023.

Judge Noor Hisham Ismail said there was no reason for the court to intervene in the decision of the Petaling Jaya sessions court, which convicted Ismanira Abdul Manaf, 31.

He said after examining the appeal record, grounds of judgment, and written and oral submissions from both sides, the court was satisfied that there were no errors of fact or law warranting the decision being set aside.

“The appellate court will only intervene if a sentence is clearly excessive, disproportionate, or if there has been an error of principle,” he said in delivering the decision today.

Noor Hisham said the five-year prison sentence imposed on Ismanira was appropriate and not excessive based on the facts of the case.

He also stressed that Ismanira was being punished for her own act of neglect, not any criminal act that might have been committed by a third party.

The court also dismissed the prosecution’s cross-appeal seeking a heavier sentence on grounds that the five-year term did not have a sufficient deterrent effect.

Ismanira was represented by lawyers Haresh Mahadevan, Tiara Katirina Fuad, Lavanesh Mahadevan and Haijan Omar.

The prosecution team comprised deputy public prosecutors Raja Zaizul Faridah Raja Zaharudin, Kamarul Iman Ahmad Sapian and Ahmad Iqbal Azman.

On Jan 7, Ismanira filed a petition of appeal against the five-year prison sentence imposed by the Petaling Jaya sessions court.

Among the grounds raised by the defence was that the charge against Ismanira should have been brought under Section 33 rather than Section 31 of the Child Act 2001.

According to the petition, the sessions court judge also misdirected herself in rejecting the evidence of a qualified expert put forward by the defence solely on grounds that he did not examine the child, whereas the prosecution relied on expert opinions from people who were neither called as witnesses nor examined the child.

The petition alleged that the rejection was arbitrary, disproportionate and amounted to a serious misdirection in the evaluation of expert evidence.

The sessions court ruled that the defence had failed to raise reasonable doubt and ordered Ismanira to begin serving her prison sentence immediately, in addition to signing a two-year good behaviour bond with one surety and bail of RM3,000 upon release.

Ismanira was also ordered to perform 120 hours of community service, to be completed within six months of completing her prison term.

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