The Star, Kuala Lumpur, 1 November 2002

Jail, rotan for bomoh who raped teenager

MUAR: The Sessions Court here sentenced a bomoh to a total of 32 years' jail and ordered to be whipped 16 times on two counts of raping a minor.

Munawar Ismail, 35, who also faces three other rape charges, was sentenced to 16 years' jail and eight strokes of the rotan for each of the two charges committed against a girl, then aged 14 years and three months, at a house along Jalan Bakariah, here, between June and July last year.

Judge Norazlan Ahmad ordered the two sentences against Munawar to run concurrently.

When Munawar, from Kampung Parit Pulai near Bukit Gambir, was being escorted out of the court, he cursed and tried to kick several cameramen.

However, a policeman who was escorting the bomoh managed to pull him away, allowing the cameramen to take his photos.

On Aug 24 last year, Munawar was brought to the Sessions Court and charged with raping the girl and three others, including a 20-year-old woman. He pleaded not guilty.

In mitigation, Munawar, who was not represented, asked the court for a lenient sentence saying he had a wife, six children and an old mother to look after.

However, prosecuting officer Asst Supt Lim Ah Bah said the court should impose the maximum penalty as the man had conned people and committed rapes as a bomoh.

Utusan Express Online, Kuala Lumpur, 12 November 2002

Ex-con jailed 43 years for rape, robbery, sodomy

MUAR Nov 11 - A man charged with rape, robbery and sodomy was sentenced here today to a total of 43 years in jail for his brutal attack on a teenage girl in her own home. He was also sentenced to 10 strokes of the rotan.

Robbed at knife point, barbarically raped and forced to have anal sex, the victim, a Form Three student, was left bleeding severely in her house in Taman Sungai Abong near here at 11 pm on Aug 24, 2001.

Norizan Zainal, 20, who is also unemployed, was sentenced by the Sessions Court here after pleading guilty to all three offences. He was charged under Section 392 of the Penal Code for robbery, Section 376 for rape, and Section 377C for sodomy.

On the first charge, Norizan was accused of using a knife to rob the girl of cash and jewellery worth RM26,000.00. On the second charge, he was accused of raping the girl at the same time and place and on the third charge, he was accused of committing unnatural sex acts on the victim against her will.

The court sentenced Norizan to 10 years' jail for robbery, 15 years' jail and 10 strokes of the rotan for rape and 18 years jail for sodomy.

Judge Mohd Fauzi Mohd Nasir ordered the sentences to run concurrently from the date of his arrest on Aug 25, 2001.

Norizan, from Pasir Gudang, was arrested Norizan within five hours of the brutal attack.

While passing sentence, Mohd Fauzi said the court sentenced Norizan heavily given the gravity of offence and because of its forcible and brutal nature.

New Straits Times, Kuala Lumpur, 14 November 2002

Local mothers abandoned by alien fathers

By Carol Murugiah

JOHOR BARU, Nov 14: THE recent purging of illegal immigrants by the Home Ministry has created a new social problem: local mothers abandoned by their non-Malaysian husbands who fled the country to avoid the whip and a prison term. In highlighting the predicament of these mothers at the Johor Assembly today, some of whom have not even registered the birth of their children, Malik Ibrahim (BN-Pulai Sebatang) asked the Johor Welfare Department what had been done to help them.

.............

On a similar development, Menteri Besar [State Premier -- C.F.] Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman said 724 illegal immigrants who had stayed behind in Malaysia even after the amnesty period for them to return home had expired have been caught and imprisoned.

"After the amnesty ended on July 31, 724 of them were jailed. Out of these, 403 had also been sentenced to whipping, while action is being taken against 20 employers for hiring these illegals," Abdul Ghani said.

He was responding to a question by Datuk Baharom Abdul Ghani (BN-Tanjung Kupang) who had wanted to know the statewide statistics on the number of illegal immigrants still in Johor post-July 31.

"Presently, an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 foreigners reside illegally in Johor. They are hard to trace because they are most likely at estates and rural areas especially in Segamat, Mersing and Kota Tinggi where it is not easy to conduct checks," he said.

© New Straits Times (M) Berhad

Jakarta Post, Indonesia, 16 November 2002

Malaysia canes 387 Indonesians

JAKARTA: The Malaysian government had caned 387 Indonesians for violations of its new immigration policy implemented on August 1.

Foreign ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa said Friday that a total of 677 illegal Indonesian workers had been sentenced to caning by Malaysian courts. "The 387 Indonesians were caned in different states of Malaysia, but we do not have the details of how many lashes they received."

Marty said the 387 people had returned home to Indonesia, while the rest remained in detention in Malaysia. Indonesian representatives there had provided lawyers and the necessary assistance to the workers during the process, he said.

Antara reported that most of the beatings occurred in the state of Johor, where 400 people, mostly Indonesians, were caned in the last couple of months.

Johor Head of State Abdul Ghani Othman said a total of 734 illegal migrant workers had been jailed for illegal entry, with 403 caned since August.

He said currently there were around 8,000 to 10,000 illegal migrants in the state, down from around 97,800 early this year. Thousands of Indonesians working illegally in Malaysia, where they were exploited as cheap labor, were forced to flee Indonesia's Muslim neighbor prior to the implementation of the controversial new laws. --JP

The Star, Kuala Lumpur, 29 November 2002

Rapist gets another 11 years' jail term

KUALA LUMPUR: An unemployed man, who was recently jailed and ordered to be whipped [pictured] for brutally attacking and raping a student in Kajang, was sentenced by the Sessions Court in Ampang to another 11 years' jail and ordered to be caned three times for seriously injuring and robbing her.

Jumat Abdullah @ Richard Norman, 32, of Jalan Lundu Biawak in Kuching, who admitted to kicking and trying to suffocate the 19-year-old girl, was ordered to serve his jail term after completing his first imprisonment term.

Judge Mohamed Saman Mohd Ramli sentenced Jumat to seven years' jail for voluntarily causing grievous hurt to the Form Six girl below the pedestrian bridge in Jalan Reko Kajang, Kajang on Oct 8.

Jumat was charged under Section 325 of the Penal Code, which provides for a jail term of up to seven years, and a fine.

He was also sentenced to another four years' jail and ordered to be whipped three times for robbing the student of her jade locket and RM123 at the same place that day.

Jumat was charged under Section 394 of the Penal Code, which provides for a jail term of up to 20 years, and a fine, or whipping.

In delivering the judgment, Mohamed Saman said he had to impose an appropriate sentence to make the accused and would-be offenders learn a lesson.

"The accused had raped, robbed and injured her (the student) which is serious. The community considers this type of offence repulsive. Therefore, I agree with the prosecution to order a jail term for each offence to run consecutively as each offence is distinct in nature," he said before a packed courtroom.

The judge said he had to take into account the fact that the student broke her backbone in the ordeal.

On Oct 22, Jumat was jailed 19 years and ordered to be whipped 12 times for raping the student, after he pleaded guilty to the offence. Jumat was ordered to serve his term effective from the date of arrest.

When the latest sentence was read yesterday, Jumat, who was unrepresented, was expressionless.

In mitigation, Jumat asked for a lenient sentence, saying he hoped the court would consider that he had to serve a "long jail term" for the crime.

Jumat said his family members and relatives could not visit him because they were staying far away.

He begged the court to impose a concurrent jail sentence effective from his date of arrest on Oct 10, saying that he had regretted his actions and would not repeat them.

Earlier, DPP Kamaruzaman Abdul Jalil asked the court to impose a deterrent sentence against Jumat, saying that the accused had four previous convictions.

"The accused has one record for causing hurt and had been sentenced but he (Jumat) had not repented and should be punished accordingly," DPP Kamaruzaman argued.

The court was told earlier that the student was on her way to a shopping complex when Jumat called out to her at the bridge but she ignored him. The accused then pushed the student from the 8m high bridge, choked and kicked her causing her to scream in pain. Following that, he raped her for between 10 and 15 minutes.

Jumat tied her up with a rope, stuffed her mouth with a pair of stockings, gagged her by tying a handkerchief across her jaw and covered her body with a black plastic bag

He then robbed the girl of her locket and cash. Two passers-by later came to the girl's aid.

Jumat was sent to Kajang Prison to serve his jail sentence late yesterday.