Indonesian fails to get death sentence commuted to life imprisonment for murdering daughters

The Federal Court’s three-member panel yesterday rejected an Indonesian man’s review application to commute his death sentence for killing his three young daughters, to life imprisonment.

This was the first time the Federal Court dismissed an application to review the death sentence after the Revision of Sentence of Death and Imprisonment for Natural Life (Temporary Jurisdiction of the Federal Court) Act 2023 came into force last year.

Court of Appeal president Tan Sri Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim, who chaired the panel, dismissed Junaidi Bambang’s application after ruling that the circumstances of the case did not warrant the court to exercise its discretion under the new amendment to the law to substitute the death sentence to life imprisonment.

Also on the panel were Federal

Court judges Datuk Mary Lim

Thiam Suan and Datuk Abu

Bakar Jais.

Junaidi, 67, was sentenced to death by the High Court on April 28, 2005 for killing two-year-old Julaika, nine-year-old Julaiha, and 11-year-old Juriyanti at their house in Kampung Dusun Cini, in Pekan, Pahang between 8pm on Feb 27, 2002 and 3.30pm the following day.

He lost his appeals at the Court of Appeal and Federal Court on April 12, 2010 and Feb 8, 2011, respectively.

According to the facts of the case, Junaidi was not happy with his wife’s decision to bring two of their four daughters to live in Melaka and this caused a massive misunderstanding between them.

Junaidi claimed that his sister-in-law, whom his wife and children stayed with while in Melaka, wanted to sell his daughters into prostitution. On the day of the incident, his wife returned to the family’s house and found that the front door was locked and that there was no response from her daughters when she called them.

She then entered the house through the back door and saw Junaidi lying in the kitchen with froth coming from his mouth, while the three girls were found lying motionless in the living hall.

Earlier yesterday, Junaidi’s lawyer Selvi Sandrasegaram asked the court to commute the death sentence to life imprisonment of 35 years, saying that her client was remorseful and hoped the court would give him a chance to reform himself.

She said Junaidi has been in prison for 22 years.

Deputy public prosecutor Mohd Amril Johari, however, urged the court to maintain the death sentence saying that the children were strangled with nylon ropes.