Corpun file 0766 at www.corpun.com

The Star, Kuala Lumpur, 3 April 1997

Man asks for longer jail term

By Ng Li Yiao

KUALA LUMPUR: A former security guard whose sentence was enhanced by a High Court yesterday for robbery asked the court to lengthen his jail term further in substitution for the three strokes of the rotan.

K. Elengo told Justice Datuk Hashim Yusoff to increase his four years jail term as he did not want to be whipped for robbing his ex-colleague.

The 24-year-old Elengo, who was unrepresented, made the request after Justice Hashim increased his jail sentence from 10 months to four years plus whipping, following an appeal by deputy public prosecutor Tay Lee Ly.

When his request was turned down by Justice Hashim on grounds he had used violence in the robbery, Elengo snapped back at the judge saying "I only used my hands to hit the victim. I did not use any weapons."

Justice Hashim then explained to Elengo that violence need not necessarily mean that weapons were used.

On Dec 7 last year, Elengo pleaded guilty in the Sessions Court to robbing security guard K. Ganthesvaran, 37, of RM200 in cash and a motorcycle worth RM3,200.

He admitted committing the robbery with an accomplice who is still at large at the Wearnes Brothers workshop in Jalan Pudu here at 2.30am on Aug 21, 1995.

Justice Hashim said that court's record showed Elengo and his accomplice had planned the robbery and they also assaulted the victim twice.

"You had first lured the victim to a storeroom, assaulted him and fled with his money and ATM card.

"When you found out that the PIN given was fictitious, you returned and hit him again before fleeing with his motorcycle.

"The victim was found in a semi-conscious condition five hours later in the boot of a car in the workshop. Had he been found later, he could have died of suffocation," he added.

Corpun file 0799 at www.corpun.com

The Star, Kuala Lumpur, 26 April 1997

Driver gets 48 years for raping three schoolgirls

By V. Chandrasekaran

LONG JAIL TERM ... Sulaiman had paid the victims RM7 to RM10 each time he raped them.

KANGAR: A lorry driver who lured schoolgirls to his "sex haunts" to rape them was jailed a total of 48 years and ordered to be given 24 strokes of the rotan by a Sessions Court here yesterday.

Sulaiman Bidin, 49, from Kuala Perlis, married with two children, pleaded guilty to raping three Standard Six pupils several times between February and May last year at different places, including in his house in Kuala Perlis.

For the first charge, he was jailed 16 years and ordered to be given eight strokes of the rotan for raping a 12-year-old girl in a hut in March at 4pm in Kuala Perlis.

For the second and third charges, he was jailed 16 years and ordered to be given eight strokes of the rotan each for raping two 12-year-old girls several times at an unoccupied house and in his house in Kuala Perlis between February and May last year.

According to the facts of the case, he lured two girls to a hut and raped one after another in March and paid them RM7.

Under the second and third charges, the second and third victims were raped several times between February and May last year.

The accused had paid the victims between RM6 and RM10 each time he had sex with them.

The victims had narrated the incidents to their students affairs teachers on April 11 and a police report was lodged subsequently by the girls.

The accused was arrested on April 15 at his house in Kuala Perlis at 4.30pm.

Judge Nurmala Salim ordered the sentence to run concurrently from the date of arrest.

Corpun file 0800 at www.corpun.com

The Star, Kuala Lumpur, 27 April 1997

Lecturer: Revive public punishment

KUALA KUBU BARU: The practice of hanging and caning convicted criminals in public should be revived as it is an effective deterrent, a lecturer said.

Dr Fauzi Muhammad, from the Education Studies faculty of Universiti Putra Malaysia, said this was how criminals were punished according to Islam in ancient times.

"This should be revived as punishment for drug trafficking, rape, corruption and others," he said at a seminar on youth here yesterday.

Dr Fauzi said the aim was to make criminals feel ashamed of their actions.

"God created humans to feel shame. That is why it is his way for criminals to be punished in public as stated in the Quran.

"Long ago, couples caught having illicit sex were caned in public and then banished to another state to begin a new life," he said.

Unfortunately, Dr Fauzi said the Federal Constitution prevented such punishments from being meted out even by the Syariah Courts.

Although death was the penalty for drug trafficking, there were still many offenders, he said.

This, Dr Fauzi said, was because the hanging was done in jail.

"The hanging should be done in Dataran Merdeka so that everybody can see it and fear the same fate," he said.

Dr Fauzi, who holds a doctorate in Islamic studies, said criminals like rapists and the corrupted should also be caned in public.