Umno blogger dares Rais to sue as NGO defends rape claim

KUALA LUMPUR - Despite a denial by an Indonesian maid who once worked at the home of Information Communication and Culture minister, Rais Yatim, blogger Ahirudin Attan has challenged Rais to sue a non-governmental organisation which has been insisting a rape incident involving the minister did take place.

Ahiruddin, who was also the chief editor of daily newspaper The Malay Mail and who blogs by the name Rocky Bru, said Migrant Care, the NGO which had earlier called on authorities to investigate the claims, had maintained its stand that despite a video denial by the alleged rape victim posted on several pro-UMNO blogs.

"Will he go to court?" asks Rocky on a Twitter posting, continuing his coverage of the incident.

Rocky reminded that an investigation by Migrant Care only kicked off following a complaint from Robengah’s sister alleging that her sister was raped several times by a 'minister'.

Earlier, the Indonesian news portal detik.com carried a statement by the alleged victim known as Robengah, claiming she was treated well during her employment at Rais’s house, and denied there had ever been any rape incident as claimed.

Two days earlier, Rais issued a strong denial of the claim, followed hours later by a video featuring an Indonesian maid named Sumati, said to be a friend of Robengah, dismissing the allegations as untrue.

Migrant Care however insisted that it had carried out its own investigation and admitted that an investigation report revealed on the internet was issued by it.

“But the victim did not want the report to be made public... So, Migrant Care passed the investigation report to the ruling party, Mabes Polri and KBRI Kuala Lumpur,” said the group's policy analyst Wahyu Susilo in a statement. - Harakahdaily