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Religious teacher gets jail, cane for rape bid BorneoPost Online | Borneo , Malaysia, Sarawak Daily News » Court - New 2 Sarawak

Religious teacher gets jail, cane for rape bid

Posted: 20 Mar 2014 11:42 AM PDT

by Winnie Kasmir. Posted on March 21, 2014, Friday

SANDAKAN: The Sessions Court here yesterday sentenced a religious teacher to three years' imprisonment and two strokes of cane after he was found guilty of attempting to rape a minor.

Tauhid bin Ahamad, 39, pleaded guilty before Judge Egusra Ali to a charge under Section 376 of the Penal Code.

He committed the offence at around 3 pm on 18 September 2013 in Sungai Pin, Jalan Semarak Estate, Kinabatangan.

According to the facts of the case, the accused was a teacher who taught the Al-Quran to the 12-year-old victim and her two other friends.

Prior to the incident, the accused asked the victim's friends to collect some firewood from behind the accused's house and at the same time to try and distract the cow there, while the victim was asked to stay back and boil some water in the kitchen.

While in the kitchen, the accused held the victim's hand and led her to the living room where he asked her to lie down on a mattress and close her eyes.

However, in his attempt to have sex with the victim, the accused failed to effect penetration on the victim and subsequently threatened to harm the victim if she told anyone about the incident.

The case was prosecuted by Deputy Public Prosecutor, Mohd Fillanny bin Siji.

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Wan Ahmad wins defamation suit against Mat Sabu, Mustafa Ali

Posted: 20 Mar 2014 10:51 AM PDT

KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court here yesterday ordered PAS deputy president Mohamad Sabu and party secretary-general Datuk Mustafa Ali to pay a total of RM200,000 in damages to former Election Commission (EC) deputy chairman Datuk Wan Ahmad Wan Omar for defamation over the Sabah 'IC Project'.

Judicial Commissioner Lee Heng Cheong decided that Wan Ahmad as the plaintiff had proven his case against Mohamad or Mat Sabu and Mustafa as the defendants.

The court also ordered the defendants to pay RM50,000 in costs to Wan Ahmad.

However, the court dismissed Wan Ahmad's claims against Harakah's printer, Angkatan Edaran Enterprise Sdn Bhd, Harakah chief editor Ahmad Lutfi Othman and writer Aziz Muda.

Lee said the court found that the plaintiff had failed to prove that Angkatan Edaran Enterprise was Harakah's printer, Ahmad Lutfi was Harakah chief editor and Aziz the author of an article that became the bone of contention.

Wan Ahmad was also ordered to pay RM20,000 in costs to the three defendants.

In his suit filed on March 5, last year, Wan Ahmad contended that Mohamad not only implied that he untrustworthy but also called for his resignation in articles published by Harakah in the Feb 1-3 edition from an interview conducted on Jan 29, 2013.

He said the words had referred to him as the mastermind in the conspiracy in the issuance of blue identity cards in Sabah in the quest to ensure the Barisan Nasional's victory in the state in the 13th general election.

Meanwhile, Wan Ahmad said he was pleased that the court had ruled in his favour.

"I am thankful and happy that the court's decision has cleared my name, restored my dignity and lifted that burden of shame from my family and I due to the defamatory statements," he said, adding that the EC's image had also been tarnished due to slanders and lies hurled by Mat Sabu and Mustafa.

Wan Ahmad hoped the court's decision would be a lesson to Mat Sabu and PAS on the need to be more cautious while commenting or issuing statements that could mar other people's reputation and dignity.

He said issuing defamatory statements and slanders against others also reflected low self-esteem and conduct of the persons concerned.

Wan Ahmad was accompanied by lawyers Datuk Mohd Hafarizam Harun and Nor Hazira Abu Haiyan.

All the defendants did not attend the proceedings and were represented by Counsel Azhana Mohd Khairuddin. — Bernama

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‘Syariah Court must determine validity of woman’s conversion’

Posted: 20 Mar 2014 10:48 AM PDT

PUTRAJAYA: The validity of a female factory worker's conversion to Islam by her late father when she was 15 months old is to be determined by the Syariah Court, the Federal Court ruled yesterday.

Chief Justice Tun Arifin Zakaria, chairing a five-member panel, said it was necessary for the Syariah Court to first consider whether Siti Hasnah Vangarama Abdullah's conversion in 1983 by her father was valid before the Civil Court could determine her claim of her alleged conversion in 1989 by a Perkim officer and the Penang Islamic Religious Council.

He said it was premature at this stage for the Civil Court to entertain Siti Hasnah's application.

Siti Hasnah, 29, is questioning the validity of her conversion to Islam in 1989 at the age of seven years when she was in Ramakrishnan Orphanage.

The mother of three filed an application on Dec 23, 2009, at the High Court in Penang seeking to declare the then Perkim officer Raimi Abdullah and Penang Islamic Religious Council had wrongfully caused her to renounce Hinduism and embrace Islam in 1989.

Raimi Abdullah and the Penang Islamic Religious Council, whom Siti Hasnah named as defendants in her application, said records obtained by Perkim showed Siti Hasnah, together with her parents and other siblings, converted to Islam in 1983. Siti Hasnah was one year old then.

The Penang Islamic Religious Council said Siti Hasnah went through the process of affirmation of faith in 1989 because certificates of conversion were not issued to children when their parents converted to Islam.

In the unanimous judgement delivered yesterday, the Federal Court allowed the appeals brought by Raimi and the Islamic Religious Council to set aside the Court of Appeal's order that the High Court hear Siti Hasnah's matter.

Siti Hasnah was ordered to pay RM10,000 in legal costs each to Raimi and the state Islamic Religious Council.

"We are of the view that the issue as regards to the validity of Siti Hasnah's conversion in 1983 is a matter strictly within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Syariah Court," he said.

He said it was strictly a religious issue and as such Civil Courts did not have the jurisdiction by virtue of Article 121A of the Federal Constitution.

Justice Arifin said the Court of Appeal's ruling that Siti Hasnah was never a Muslim and her alleged conversion in 1989 by Raimi and the Penang Islamic Religious Council were unlawful.

He said the Court of Appeal had arrived at its decision on the premise that Siti Hasnah was of Hindu faith and had never embraced Islam prior to 1989 and it (the Court of Appeal) completely ignored the fact that she had been earlier converted to Islam together with her father in 1983.

Justice Arifin said that under the law, the religion of a minor was determined by the parent or guardian, thus Siti Hasnah's father had the right in 1983 to determine her religion as she was then a minor.

He said the High Court had rightly struck out Siti Hasnah's application but it erred in ruling that Siti Hasnah was already a Muslim in 1989 due to the earlier conversion allegedly having taken place in 1983.

He said it was not for the High Court judge to determine the validity of Siti Hasnah's conversion in 1983.

On Aug 4, 2010, the High Court in Penang struck out Siti Hasnah's application after it held that the Civil Court did not have the jurisdiction to hear her case.

The Court of Appeal, in January 2012, overturned the High Court decision and remitted the matter to the High Court for determination.

In her affidavit in support of her application, Siti Hasnah claimed that she did not understand the content and the meaning of the words in the 'Sijil Akuan Masuk Islam' (conversion certificate) which she had read, recited and signed, as at the age of seven years, she had no choice but follow the defendants' orders to recite the 'kalimah shahadat'.

Her parents placed her at the Ramakrishnan Orphanage when she was five. She stayed there for a year-and-a-half.

Her mother R Latchumy, whose Muslim name is Siti Aisyah Abdullah, died in 1989 and her father B Subramaniam, carrying the Muslim name Mohd Yusof Abdullah, died in 2004. — Bernama

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