Child abuse case: Siti Bainun (left) arriving at the Kuala Lumpur Court Complex. — Bernama
KUALA LUMPUR: Rumah Bonda founder Siti Bainun Ahd Razali admitted she had asked for the best medicine at a pharmacy to treat the burns on the hand of Bella, a teenager with Down syndrome.
Siti Bainun, 31, said that she asked a pharmacist about the medicine and told that person about Bella’s badly burned hand.
She said this during cross-examination by deputy public prosecutor Shakira Aliana Alias at the defence trial of the woman who is accused of neglecting and abusing the 13-year-old girl in the Sessions Court here yesterday, Bernama reported.
However, Siti Bainun did not agree with Shakira Aliana’s suggestion that Bella was only treated at home and that she went to the pharmacy because she wanted to hide the girl’s wounds.
Shakira Aliana: I said you knew Bella was badly hurt and needed to be taken to the clinic, but you didn’t because you were afraid that what you did to Bella would be exposed.
Siti Bainun: Disagree.
The accused also denied that Bella was looked after by a former resident of Rumah Bonda, Yasmin Nahar Mahmood (the fifth prosecution witness), when the teenager was injured.
Siti Bainun did not agree with the prosecution’s suggestion that she did not seriously care for Bella and gave that responsibility to Yasmin.
In the previous proceedings, Yasmin told the court that Siti Bainun ordered her to apply medicine on Bella’s wound, and the medicine was bought by the accused herself.
Siti Bainun is accused of neglecting and abusing the teenager, and causing physical and emotional harm in a condominium unit in Wangsa Maju between February and June 2021.
This is an offence under Section 31(1)(a) of the Children Act 2001, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years, a fine of RM50,000, or both, upon conviction.
