“Daniel has never fought, never held a knife.
“He also never sold his grandfather’s motorbike. It’s right there,” said the woman identified as Kak Jas, pointing to it outside the house.
“His friends made up the story,” she added at their residence in Kampung Damai.
She said her son was enrolled in a tahfiz school after she divorced her husband 12 years ago. Her husband looked after Daniel when he was aged 15 to 18.
She said her son chose the wrong path due to stress because he had to live in a broken home.
“I have never blamed my son because we could not give him the best. He’s a victim of circumstances,” she said.
The mother of three described Daniel as gentle, pampered and calm.
“When people are angry, he is silent. He’s not an aggressive person … he is a good child actually,” she told FMT.
Daniel’s grandfather, Rosli Sidek, 65, felt slandered because some media reports had allegedly exaggerated the story.
“This led to a misunderstanding and a lawsuit between me and Daniel’s father.
“A media report said Daniel used a machete. Who said this? I didn’t say that.”
Due to such reports, Rosli said he was now “living in fear” because he was worried about receiving threats from parties not happy with him.
“I am the only man in this house. The others are all my children and granddaughters.
“Since this case came out in the media, I haven’t been able to sleep or go anywhere because of fear,” he said.
Last Monday, a video showing a teenager being washed like a “corpse” was spread on social media.
He was caught for stealing from the donation box of the Al Islahiah Kuang Mosque, near Rawang, about midnight on Jan 8.
The imam responsible was later asked to quit by religious authorities for taking the law into his own hands.
The teenager was later jailed for 10 days and fined RM4,000 or five months’ jail by the Selayang magistrates’ court after pleading guilty to the charges against him.
Amanah has come forward to pay the fine so that he would not need to be jailed longer and coukd undergo further counselling at a rehabilitation centre.