Jail, rotan for raping 12-year-old

Kota Kinabalu: A 24-year-old man was jailed 12 years and ordered caned six times, Wednesday, for raping an underage girl two years ago.Muhammad Hafiz Jeral was found guilty and convicted by the Sessions Court at the end of his defence to the charge of raping the 12-year-old at 10pm on June 10, 2019 at an apartment in Sulaman.

The charge under Section 376 (1) of the Penal Code provides for a jail term of up to 20 years and whipping, upon conviction.

Judge Elsie Primus ordered Hafiz, who was on bail, to serve the imprisonment sentence from the date of his conviction.

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However, Hafiz managed to obtain a stay of execution pending his appeal to the High Court against the court’s decision.

The court in allowing Hafiz’s stay application maintained the same bail amount and also ordered him to report to the nearest police station once a week.

Earlier, counsel Mohd Ari Nadzrah Abd Rahman, representing Hafiz requested for a lenient sentence as Hafiz just completed his studies and was not a habitual offender.

Ari also applied for a stay of execution of the sentence as they intended to appeal to the High Court.

The prosecution applied for a deterrent sentence, not just as punishment to Hafiz, but also to serve as a lesson to the would-be offenders, adding that the victim was only 12 years old and seven months during the incident and was traumatised due to the incident.

The prosecution also objected to the stay application.

Eight prosecution witnesses and two defence witnesses testified during the trial.

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Rustam Sanip prosecuted.

In another Sessions Court, a 19-year-old man was charged with committing sexual assault against an eight-year-old girl in Sipitang.

The man, who was the adopted uncle of the victim, pleaded not guilty before Judge Azreena Aziz to committing the offence by making the girl touch his body at 10am in May 2019 in a house in Sipitang.

He was charged under Section 14 (b) of the Sexual Offences against Children Act 2017 which carries a jail term of up to 20 years and whipping, upon conviction.

The court set Aug 23-24 for trial and released the man on a bail of RM7,000 with RM4,000 deposited in two sureties.

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The man was also warned not to tamper with any of the prosecution’s witnesses and to report himself to the police station once a month.

He was not represented. DPP Siti Amirah Muhammad Ali prosecuted.

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