KANGAR: An Indonesian babysitter pleaded guilty at the magistrate's court here to a charge of concealing the birth of her child in Kangar last month.
Yuni Widya Sari, 28, from Medan nodded and pleaded guilty to the charge when it was read before Magistrate Shahida Abd Rahim.
According to the charge, Yuni concealed the birth of her child by burying the body of the newborn baby boy at Jalan Mutiara Jaya, in Taman Mutiara, Kangar about 6.30am on Dec 21, 2023.
The charge was framed under Section 318 of the Penal Code which carries up to two years' imprisonment or a fine, or both.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Mohd Izham Ali prosecuted while the accused was represented by lawyer Nurul Hanani Che Nor from the National Legal Aid Foundation.
The prosecution urged the court not to offer bail to the accused as she is an immigrant.
However, Nurul Hanani argued that the accused has the right to be granted bail under Section 388 of the Criminal Procedure Code.
In mitigation, she asked the court to impose a reasonable bail amount as the accused is a single mother.
She said Yuni is supporting her two children aged five and four, who are under the care of her mother in Medan.
The court subsequently fixed bail at RM8,000 with two sureties and set Feb 15 to pass down the sentence pending an autopsy and DNA report.
The court also ordered the accused to surrender her passport.
However, Yuni failed to raise the bail amount.
On Dec 30, police arrested an Indonesian woman to facilitate investigation into the discovery of a newborn baby body in a shallow grave behind a house in Taman Mutiara.
It was reported that the decomposing body was found by a 44-year-old teacher who was investigating a foul stench coming from a vacant plot of land behind his house.
The accused had later admitted to the police that she had given birth to the baby in the bathroom of her employer's home but the child had died upon birth.
She had panicked and decided to bury the child's remains at the site before it was discovered by the teacher.
