Former public university Master's student Siti Noor Aishah Atam will spend a shorter time in jail for allegedly possessing 12 books related to terrorism.

This follows a decision by a Court of Appeal three-man panel today, comprising Ahmadi Asnawi, Kamardin Hashim and Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil, to reduce her jail sentence from five years to three years after allowing her appeal on the sentence.

Kamardin, who delivered the court’s judgement, set aside the five years’ jail sentence and substituted it with a three-year jail term, to run from the date of her arrest on March 23, last year.

He said the five years’ jail term imposed by the High Court was manifestly excessive.

The court, however, dismissed Siti Noor Aishah’s appeal on her conviction, on the grounds that her appeal did not have merits.

Kamardin said the court agreed with the High Court’s findings that Siti Noor Aishah’s defence did not raise a reasonable doubt against the prosecution’s case.

He said the court also found that the High Court judicial commissioner did not make any error in his findings, and in his decision to convict Siti Noor Aishah on the charge which warranted the appellate court’s intervention.

The 30-year-old Siti Noor Aishah was found guilty by the High Court in Kuala Lumpur in April this year for the possession of 12 books on Jemaah Islamiyah, Islamic State, and Al Qaeda in Dungun, Terengganu on March 22, last year.

She was initially acquitted and discharged by the High Court without entering her defence on Sept 29, 2016, but on appeal by the prosecution, the appellate court ordered her to enter her defence last March, and remitted the matter back to the High Court for her to do so.

After the verdict, counsel Mohd Kamaruzaman A Wahab said he would seek his client's instruction on whether to bring the matter up to the Federal Court.

He said since her jail term had been reduced to three years, Siti Noor Aishah is expected to be released by early next year as she had already served a year's jail and taking into account the one-third remission on her jail sentence.

- Bernama