Corpun file 6013 at www.corpun.com

The Star, Kuala Lumpur, 17 August 2000

Metro KL

Whip vandals

City Hall proposes caning to curb vandalism

By Esther Chandran

VANDALS in the city may soon face whipping if a City Hall proposal is approved by Parliament.

City Hall's anti-vandalism committee has suggested a Federal Vandalism Act outlining specific measures to curb the menace.

Committee chairman Datuk Lee Lam Thye said he believed caning would be a deterrent in curbing vandalism.

"Caning is not a culture in our society, but the present by-laws have not been effective in dealing with vandalism," he said.

He said City Hall's Anti-Vandalism By-Law 1991 was not "wide enough" to cover private properties and the punishment for offenders was also not severe enough.

Under the by-law, offenders can be fined a maximum RM2,000 or a year's jail or both.

Lee said the present by-law needed to be reviewed as vandalism was becoming serious.

He said the proposed Vandalism Act would give local authorities wider powers in nabbing offenders, as it would cover public as well as private property.

Another proposal was for local authorities to apply for a court order subjecting vandals to community work as practised in other countries.

"We must look at other options to punish vandals as fines alone are not effective enough," Lee said.

Lee, who discussed the proposal with several private companies, said the proposals were receiving support from the private sector.

He said City Hall departments, Putra-LRT, STAR-LRT [local railway companies - C.F.], Telekom Malaysia, Pos Malaysia, the city police (crime division) and the Education Department will work together to combat vandalism by forming a working committee to be chaired by enforcement department director Kamaruddin Omar.

A meeting was held between the parties on Tuesday to discuss strategies and work out an action plan to combat the problem.

"We have decided to bring together the private and public sectors to conduct series of campaigns to tackle the problem," said Lee, who is also a City Hall advisory board member.

He said Telekom had agreed to print anti-vandalism statements on telephone bills.

He said the committee would seek the help of Datuk Bandar Tan Sri Kamaruzzaman Shariff in getting the allocation for the campaign.

Lee said the firms, which also suffered from losses due to vandalism, had also agreed to intensify enforcement action in vandalism-prone areas.

During the first half of the year, City Hall reported a loss of RM1.1mil due to vandalism, STAR-LRT RM45,000, Putra-LRT RM314,700, Federal Territory Education Department RM71,830, Telekom RM405,110 and the police RM78,791.

Kamaruddin said his team would conduct surveillance round-the-clock.

The public can call 40244442 or 40220033 to report cases of vandalism.

Copyright 1995-2000, Star Publications (Malaysia) Berhad. 10894-D.

Follow-up: 31 August 2001: Call for vandals to be whipped

Corpun file 6038 at www.corpun.com

The Star, Kuala Lumpur, 25 August 2000

Japanese gets jail, rotan for molesting woman

By Charanjeet Kaur

KUALA LUMPUR: A Japanese engineer was sentenced to eight years' jail and ordered to be given 10 strokes of the rotan by a Sessions Court yesterday after he was found guilty of molesting a 27-year-old manager in a hotel room last year.

Judge Akhtar Tahir, when sentencing Hiroshi Iwabuchi, 43, said the gravity of the offence committed was more serious in this case because of the injuries sustained by the victim.

"The scars will remain with the victim for the rest of her life. The accused has also not shown any remorse or regret for the offence he had committed but instead tried to accuse the victim of being immoral," Akhtar said.

Akhtar ordered Iwabuchi's sentence to start from his date of arrest on Nov 22 last year.

Iwabuchi, clad in a white T-shirt, jeans and a blue jacket, was brought to the courtroom at 10.30am. He appeared composed throughout the proceedings.

The victim, who was seated at the public gallery, covered her face and broke down, appearing relieved after the sentence was pronounced.

Iwabuchi, from Taitoku in Tokyo, was ordered on April 27 to enter his defence on an alternative charge of using criminal force to outrage the woman's modesty at Room 1523, Shangri-La Hotel, Jalan Sultan Ismail, between 1am and 4am on Nov 19.

The temporary project manager for Tokyo Electrical Power Supplies Sdn Bhd was, however, acquitted and discharged from a charge of raping and sodomising the manager at the same place, time and date.

The alternative charge under Section 354 of the Penal Code carries a maximum 10 years' jail, fine, or whipping, or any two of the sentences upon conviction.

Reading his two-page judgment, Akhtar said that after assessing the testimonies of the doctor (prosecution witness) and chemico-legal and forensic consultant (defence witness), he accepted the doctor's evidence as he was the one who had treated the victim soon after the incident.

He added the consultant's evidence was merely an opinion.

Akhtar said that in his opinion, Iwabuchi had lied in his testimony and made several allegations against the victim only after his defence was called.

"I find that his evidence had also failed to create a reasonable doubt in the prosecution's case.

"After considering all evidence adduced, I am of the opinion that it was none other than the accused who was responsible for the severe injuries to the victim's private parts," he said.

In mitigation, Iwabuchi's counsel Mohd Rafie Mohd Safie pleaded for a lenient sentence, saying Iwabuchi would lose his job and also bring disgrace to him, his family and his company.

"My client has a clean record. He has a wife and two children back in Japan," said Mohd Rafie, urging the court to order his sentence to take effect from his date of arrest.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Salehuddin Saidin, in urging the court to pass a deterrent sentence, said the offence was committed brutally.

Salehuddin stressed that the victim could have died had she not been treated immediately.

Later, Mohd Rafie told reporters that he would be filing a notice of appeal against the decision today.

Follow-up: 31 October 2001 - Court upholds Japanese engineer's jail sentence (but cane strokes reduced on appeal from 10 to three)

Corpun file 6055 at www.corpun.com

The Star, Kuala Lumpur, 31 August 2000

Cook gets jail and rotan for raping colleague

By Raphael Wong

KUALA LUMPUR: A 22-year-old cook was yesterday jailed 22 years and ordered to be given 18 strokes of the rotan by the Sessions Court on two counts of raping his 21-year old colleague last year.

Judge Datuk Ahmadi Asnawi sentenced Ab Malek Atan to 10 years jail and eight strokes whipping for the first charge, and 12 years jail and 10 strokes for the second charge, which were to run concurrently.

Ab Malek, a cook at Kelab Country Paradise, had been charged with raping the woman, aged 21 years at the time of the offence, in a house in Taman Setapak Indah, Setapak, on Oct 6.

He also faced a second charge of committing the act again, at the same place and date, at 11am.

Ab Malek's counsel, Edmund Bon, during mitigation, said his client was still young and had the opportunity to turn over a new leaf.

He also said that the accused was a first offender.

However, Deputy Public Prosecutor Nur Ruwena Mohd Nurdin said the accused had brought the victim to a house, although he initially said they would be going for a drink.

She then asked for a deterrent sentence.