Court sets aside acquittal, jails rubber tapper for statutory rape

PUTRAJAYA, March 1 — A rubber tapper was sentenced to eight years’ jail by the Court of Appeal here today, for raping an underage girl at a hotel here, about five years ago.

A three-member panel led by Justice Datuk Seri Abu Samah Nordin allowed the prosecution’s appeal to set aside the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court’s decision to acquit Mohamad Malek Ridhzuan Che Hassan, 25, at the end of the defence’s case.

The panel convicted Mohamad Malek Ridhzuan on two counts of raping the girl, then aged 12 years and nine months, at the hotel in Jalan Pudu between 1am and 3am on April 23, 2008.

He was ordered to serve the jail term concurrently, beginning today.

However, the rubber tapper, from Kuala Lipis, Pahang, was spared the rotan as the punishment was discretionary, and Deputy Public Prosecutor Kwan Li Sa did not press for it.

In setting aside Mohamad Malek Ridhzuan’s acquittal, Abu Samah said the sessions court judge had misdirected herself when she held that Mohamad Malek Ridhzuan had raised a reasonable doubt against the prosecution’s case.

The Sessions Court had acquitted Mohamad Malek Ridhzuan on the charges, on November 9, 2010, and the Kuala Lumpur High Court upheld the Sessions Court’s decision on February 23, last year.

Abu Samah, who sat on the panel with Justices Datuk Azahar Mohamed and Datuk Mohd Zawawi Salleh, said this was a case where the court had found it difficult to pass sentence.

Earlier, counsel Amrit Pal Singh who appeared for Mohamad Malek Ridhzuan, mitigated for leniency and urged the panel to bound over his client for good behaviour.

He drew parallels between his client’s position and the case of a national bowler who was bound over for good behaviour for five years in the sum of RM25,000 by the Court of Appeal last year.

In that case, the accused, then 19, had raped a 13-year-old girl in a hotel room in 2010, but pleaded guilty when charged.

Amrit Pal said this was also a case of “suka sama suka” (consensual) where both of them were lovers and there was no force or coercion against the girl.

“It was a mistake on his part based on his young age,” he said, adding that his client had sought forgiveness, particularly from the victim, and asked the court to be merciful to him and give him a chance to turn over a new leaf.

Kwan urged the court to mete out a prison term of between 12 and 15 years, as this was a serious offence, taking into consideration the girl’s age. — Bernama