KOTA KINABALU: A woman who already has 12 children of her own tried to claim three others as hers as well to try and get identity cards for them.
The only problem is that these three children were all born a few months apart in the same year, 1999. The woman was jailed for four years by the Tawau Magistrate’s Court for providing false information to act as a guarantor for two of these children.
Kartinadari Amai, 56, pleaded guilty to claiming them as her biological children before Magistrate Don Stiwin Malanjum, who handed down a two-year sentence for each offence, with the sentences to run consecutively.
In the first charge, Kartinadari received a two-year sentence for falsely registering herself as the mother of Mohd Hafik Julal while applying for an identity card at the Tawau National Registration Department (NRD) office on March 11, 2011.
The second charge saw her receive another two-year sentence for committing the same offence while registering an identity card under the name Hasnani Julal at the Tawau NRD on Nov 16, 2012.
Kartinadari was charged under Regulation 25(1)(b) of the National Registration Regulations 1990 (Amended 2007), which carries a penalty of up to three years in prison, a fine of up to RM20,000, or both upon conviction.
According to the facts of case, on Jan 16 this year, the Tawau NRD received a complaint during a system review that Kartinadari had allegedly given birth to three children in 1999 only a few months apart – Mohd Hafik (March 2, 1999), Hasnani (May 14, 1999) and Merna (June 8, 1999).
Further checks found that identity cards had been issued to two of these children, Mohd Hafik and Hasnani, while the third, Merna, had not received the document.
The witnesses were Kartinadari’s biological children, who later confirmed that the three individuals were not biological siblings and that they did not know their real parents.
Kartinadari, who was represented by counsel Jhasarry P. Kang from the National Legal Aid Foundation, has 12 biological children – eight sons and four daughters – from her marriage to one Julal Johor in 1981.
NRD prosecuting officer Mohd Naser Mohd Nadzeri asked the court to impose a deterrent sentence, citing public interest and the serious consequences of Kartinadari’s actions.
He argued that her act of being a guarantor in the identity card applications for two individuals who were not her biological children and who were illegal immigrants was a grave offence as it granted them access to benefits reserved for Malaysian citizens, to which they were not entitled.
Despite Kartinadari’s guilty plea, the prosecution insisted that the offence should not be treated lightly as it significantly undermined the integrity of the legal system.
