Midwife arrested for killing own baby

BANJARNEGARA, Central Java: Twenty-one-year-old Naimah, a midwife from the subdistrict of Madukara in Barnjarnegara regency was arrested by local police on Friday for killing her newborn.

She killed the baby by strangling it with the umbilical chord.

The murder was committed on Jan. 23, 2002, only several hours before the baby's corpse was found by her husband, Mukti, in their backyard.

Not aware that it was his wife's baby, Mukti reported his finding to the local police.

Naomi finally confessed to the police the murder after being interrogated.

Mukti conceded he was suspicious of his wife, "but after telling the finding to my wife she said she had not given birth but had committed an abortion".

Naimah confessed to the police that she had killed her baby because she was ashamed.

"I was four-months pregnant when I married Mukti last November," she said during the police investigation on Friday. --JP