Corpun file 18309

New Straits Times, Kuala Lumpur, 4 September 2006

Locked away for good

Child rapist gets 62 years and 5 strokes

By Alina Simon

ALOR STAR: A child rapist will spend the next 62 years in jail for the rape and attempted rape of four boys and two girls in July. In what is believed to be one of the heaviest sentences ever passed on such a crime, van driver Zainal Majid, 40, will also be whipped five times.

The Sessions Court sentenced him to 24 years plus the lashes yesterday for two charges. This would add to the 38 years' jail for four charges when he was first brought to court last month.

Sessions Court judge Maznah Abdul Aziz ordered these sentences to run consecutively.

Zainal, who stood handcuffed in the dock, showed no emotion as he pleaded guilty to the two charges of raping a 14-year-old girl and attempting to sodomise her 10-year old brother.

These offences were committed between 8pm on July 16 and 8pm the next day in a shack at a remote durian orchard in Kampung Lubuk Gajah in Jitra.

The divorced father of one nodded his head to indicate his guilty plea but kept silent when asked to make a plea in mitigation.
It was only after Maznah prodded him several times that he finally spoke out.

"I am giving you the chance to make a plea because this is a serious offence. You will get jail and also whippings. So tell me, what do you want," asked Maznah. Zainal responded by saying that he wished for a reduced sentence but did not give any reason.

Deputy public prosecutor Nur Hafizza Azizan, however, pressed for maximum jail and whippings as the man was a serial rapist who preyed on underaged victims.

"He committed these sexual offences on different victims who trusted him," she said.

Zainal was accused of sodomising a 14-year-old boy and raping two girls aged 11 and 14. He was also accused of attempting to sodomise three boys aged nine, 10 and 13.

The six incidents which took place over an eight-day period in July, stunned the families living in a PPRT housing estate in Malau, Kubang Pasu.

Zainal was accused of taking each child alone in the evenings to a remote durian orchard about 10km away and threatening to leave them there if they refused to submit to him.

What transpired surfaced after one of the children fell ill and related his ordeal to his parents.

© Copyright 2006 The New Straits Times Press (M) Berhad. All rights reserved.

Corpun file 18382

The Star, Kuala Lumpur, 19 September 2006

Four jailed over gang-rape

KUANTAN: Four youths will spend 12 years in jail and receive six strokes of rotan each for gang-raping an Indonesian maid six years ago.

Azmeyzan Ibrahim, 28, Mohd Khalid Mohd Nor, 27, Mohd Hardi Harun, 26, and Yahirawan Yahya, 26, were found guilty of two counts of raping the woman.

Sessions Court judge Sarimah Hashim sentenced the four yesterday to 12 years' jail and three strokes for each count, with the jail terms running concurrently.

The four and three others still at large, were charged with raping the woman, then 26, at an unnumbered house in Kampung Sungai Isap Lama near here, between 1am and 5am on May 13, 2000.

The second act occurred between 10am and 3pm the same day.

SHAMEFUL QUARTET: The four youths being led away after their sentencing on Monday.

The other three still at large are Nik Zuharani Nik Zain, 26, Ghazali Rahini Rahman, 26, and Saiful Izam Mohd Razali, 28.

According to the facts of the case, the seven youths had trespassed into the house in the wee hours of the morning before taking turns to rape the victim.

In pressing for a heavy sentence, C/Insp Soh Tong Pon said the four young men had committed a “despicable” act and taken advantage of the maid who had broken her legs during a freak accident.

Sarimah ordered the police to track down the three who had absconded half way through the hearing.

“The court will give the police until Nov 10 to detain the three and re-charge them in court,” she said

She added that warrants of arrest had been issued.

She said the court viewed the disappearance of the three a serious matter.

© 1995-2005 Star Publications (Malaysia) Bhd (Co No 10894-D)

Corpun file 18402

New Straits Times, Kuala Lumpur, 22 September 2006

Mail jailed 33 years for raping girl eight years ago

KLANG: A Form Three student was on her way home from school eight years ago when she was raped by a neighbour. The girl was threatened before she was raped again the next day. Yet, she did not report the matter to the police due to shame.

Nine months later, she gave birth to a baby boy. Only then did she lodge a report.

While the baby was given up for adoption, his young mother's future was ruined.

Yesterday, the baby's father, Abd Samad Abd Ghani, 34, was sentenced by the Sessions Court to 33 years' jail and ordered to receive six strokes of the rotan for two counts of rape.

Samad was found guilty of raping the 15-year-old girl in his house in Sungai Jarum, Kuala Langat, on July 29, 1998, at 2pm, and at 2.30pm the following day.

Samad's conviction took eight years. He was first charged on Sept 3, 1999, and tried in November 2001.

He was later acquitted by the Sessions Court for both the offences on July 28, 2002.

Prosecution appealed against the acquittal and on Aug 11, 2004, the High Court struck out the lower court's decision and ordered Samad to enter his defence at the Sessions Court.

Yesterday, judge Noradidah Ahmad found him guilty after three defence witnesses testified.

She ordered him to serve 16 years in jail and receive three strokes of the rotan for the first offence, and another 17 years in jail and three strokes of the rotan for the second.

The jail terms are to run consecutively from Aug 11, 2004.

In pressing for a consecutive and maximum sentence, deputy public prosecutor Mohd Azar Irwan Arifin said the incident had traumatised the victim.

"Rape cases are rampant nowadays and the court must relay a stern message to society that we will not tolerate such behaviour," he said.

Counsel K. Kandiah, however, pleaded for leniency as Samad was a first offender and came from a poor family.

© Copyright 2006 The New Straits Times Press (M) Berhad. All rights reserved.

Corpun file 18458

Bernama National News Agency, 26 September 2006

Kim And Mat: Between Life And Death

By Melati Mohd Ariff

(extracts)

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 26 (Bernama) -- Kim (not his real name) is 28 years old, fair-skinned, well built and highly confident of himself. It is hard to imagine that this young man is actually a death-row inmate.

He was handed down the capital punishment in 2005 under Section 39(B) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952.

Mat, 40, bespectacled and looking despondent is meanwhile serving a life term. He was sentenced on Nov 16, 1990 under Section 4 of the Firearms (Increased Penalties) Act 1971 and incarcerated for 16 years now.

While Kim looks confident that he will escape the gallows, Mat more or less has resigned to the fact that he will be spending the rest of his life behind bars.

Kim spoke confidently of him being not guilty and that he was going to appeal, while Mat spoke in a low voice, pondering how he was going to spend the rest of his life in prison.

KIM'S STORY

As a death-row convict or in short a BA (Blok Abadi inmate), Kim has a cell to himself. He is one of the 10-odd death-row inmates in the 24 to 28 years age group.

Kim was tried on the first charge of possessing 71 small packets of dried leaves suspected to be cannabis.

"The trial lasted for about two years eight months. I lost the case on the first charge and was sentenced by the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court to 10 years' jail and whipped 10 times. The whipping had been carried out and my jail sentence is expected to end in September 2007," said Kim.

The second charge, possession of two kilos of cannabis, was heard at the Kuala Lumpur High Court from January 2001 to November 2005 where he was found guilty and sentenced to death.

[...]

On being whipped 10 times, Kim said the punishment was carried out in 2005.

He said the pain was unbearable and indescribable. It took a month for the wounds to heal, and his father and sister who came to visit him cried when they saw the wounds.

MAT'S STORY

Mat wears a prison T-shirt with the letters "HSH" on the front which distinguish him as a life-term inmate but Mat told the writer in jest that the acronym stood for "Home Sweet Home".

Mat, the third of six siblings, was jailed at the age of 24. His parents were divorced when he was 12. Mat and his older sister stayed with their mother who set up business in a canteen to support them after the divorce.

[...]

Mat seemed to have accepted the fact that he might be spending the rest of his life in prison, as he put it: "If I'm fated to be here, then let it be. I don't know what tomorrow will bring.

"After 16 years, I'm still holding on. Some became mentally ill even though they were jailed for only three years."

Mat said in the event he is freed he would be able to work out his life. He would probably take up tailoring, a trade he learned in prison.

To the stubborn Mat who had been whipped 12 times, prison has taught him what patience is all about.

"Well, I don't have much of a choice but to learn to be patient and to know myself and other people's character better.

"We have common sense, we can judge what's good or bad. Wherever we are today is the result of our doing yesterday," he said, sounding remorseful.
-- BERNAMA