Singapore: Nonoi's murderer hanged

December 19, 2008: Mohammed Ali Johari, a murder convict, was hanged at Changi Prison in Singapore, police said.

He was found guilty of murdering his two-year-old stepdaughter, known as Nonoi, and was sentenced to death in August 2007. In April 2008, a final court bid to escape the gallows was dismissed by the High Court. Judge of Appeal V.K. Rajah dismissed the appeal, calling what Mohammed Ali did 'the cruellest thing you can do to a child'. Nonoi, or Nur Asyura Mohamed Fauzi, was believed to have gone missing from the Circuit Road flat belonging to her stepfather's parents on March 1, 2006.

Mohammed Ali initially blamed his father and younger brother for not taking good care of her. He confessed to the killing only three days later, claiming that her death was accidental.

He told authorities that Nonoi had began crying while they were in their Pipit Road flat. Wanting to pacify her, he slapped and punched her but she did not stop, so he dunked her in a pail of water. She died after the third dunking, he then said. Mohammed Ali carried Nonoi's body to his parents' flat and later dumped her body under the Aljunied flyover. An autopsy showed that she had been molested before her death.

The definite cause of death could not be determined although the condition of her lungs was consistent with that of a drowning victim.

Source: Straits Times, 20/12/2008