Never ever again: Inmates share regret behind prison walls
WAN MOHD NOOR HAFIZ WAN MANSOR23 Apr 2023 09:46am
Muslim inmates performing prayers at Pokok Sena Prison
POKOK SENA - For the next 15 year, a company director will experience Raya differently.
The 50-year old, known as Ustaz was sentenced to prison here last November under Section 4(1)(b) of the Anti-Money Laundering Act.
He said he missed his wife's sambal sotong nasi lemak dish that she used to cook every morning during Raya.
He added that he had been blessed to spend 20 years with his family but will spend the next 15 years in prison.
He urged people not to follow his footsteps. He said this during a visit by the President of the Muslim Care Malaysia Association, Zulkifli Wajihan, and activist Natipah Abu.
The father of eight children said his family members would come to visit him in prison, in a different atmosphere and reminisced about his memories with his wife's family, where they would return to their hometown in Kedah and then to Sarawak and Johor.
As for the female inmates, who are referred to as "Bonda," one of them was imprisoned after being sentenced under Section 302 for killing her stepchild six years ago.
However, the 38-year-old woman's sentence was reduced after the court found that she had committed the crime unintentionally and would only have to serve another six years in prison before being released.
"I was placed in prison when I was pregnant and was separated from my daughter after a month of giving birth. She was taken care by my parents, after my husband divorced me," she said.
Another young female prisoner, who wished to be known as Yati said she had not been able to celebrate Raya with her family for several years due to her crime committed in 2017.
The 26-year-old was sentenced under Section 302 of the Penal Code for killing her baby while studying in her first semester at a college in Kedah.
Yati with activists Natipah Abu at Pokok Sena prison.
Yati was romantically involved with a male student and was unaware she was pregnant until she experienced abdominal pain on March 30, 2017, and rushed to the toilet, thinking it was her period.
After enduring the pain, she was shocked to find that the baby had slipped out into the toilet bowl and, in a panic, she pulled the umbilical cord until it came out, leaving the baby, believed to be dead, in the toilet.
"My advice to teenagers out there is not to get too involve in relationships to the point of getting carried away like me.
"We may regret it later and cannot do anything about it," she said, as she is currently in the process of appealing to reduce her sentence.
