Bersatu rep’s aide sentenced to 13 years’ jail, whipping for rape

 

Kuala Lumpur sessions court judge Nor Hasniah Abdul Razak said businessman Zulfahimin Mahdzir had committed a serious and cruel offence by taking advantage of the victim while she was intoxicated.

PETALING JAYA: 

The Kuala Lumpur sessions court today sentenced an aide to Bersatu’s Hilman Idham to 13 years in prison and two strokes of the rotan for raping an acquaintance of the Gombak Setia assemblyman four years ago.

On May 31, judge Nor Hasniah Abdul Razak ruled that Zulfahimin Mahdzir, 40, had failed to raise any reasonable doubt when his defence was called after the prosecution had established a prima facie case against him.

According to Sinar Harian, Hasniah said the defence failed to furnish any explanation to refute evidence given by prosecution witnesses, which clearly stated that the victim was drunk on the night of the incident.

In her grounds of judgment released last Thursday, the judge also said Zulfahimin’s defence that he did not rape the woman was nothing more than a bare denial.

She said he had committed a serious and cruel offence by taking advantage of the victim while she was intoxicated, and that a heavy sentence was necessary to serve as a deterrent to would-be offenders.

In September 2021, Zulfahimin, a businessman, claimed trial to raping the woman in December 2020.

The 33-year-old woman had claimed that she was raped in a room at Dorsett Hartamas after her birthday party on Dec 5, 2020.

She filed a police report on the same day over the incident but said she was intimidated by Hilman’s associates into retracting it three days later.

She subsequently lodged another report in January 2021 after seeking counselling from the Women’s Aid Organisation. - FMT