KUALA LUMPUR, May 13 ― The 60-year-old Sibu man who was acquitted of statutory rape charges should be slapped with a new charge for sexually abusing a 15-year old girl, a senior lawyer has said.

George Lo said the  Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) should charge Bunya Jalong as he had admitted to sexually abusing a minor.

“Putting aside legal technicalities, Bunya has admitted that he sexually abused the 15-year-old girl. He took her to a hotel. He inserted his finger into her vagina.

“He may have gotten lucky because insertion of his finger into her vagina does not constitute ‘rape’ in Malaysia but it is sexual abuse of a child, nothing more, nothing less,” the Borneo Post quoted Lo as saying.

The Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) has said it will not seek a review of the recent decision to acquit Bunya.

Deputy Solicitor-General (I) Datuk Tun Abd Majid Tun Hamzah said in a report by English daily The Star that the case has run its course ending at the appellate court, hence “there is no further appeal”.

“The AGC has maintained the policy of not filing a review,” he said.

Last Thursday, a three-member Court of Appeal panel presiding in Kuching released Bunya Jalong of four charges of rape allegedly committed in 2011, ruling that it was unsafe to convict Bunya of the charges.

His charge sheet claimed that he had raped a 15-year-old girl between May and August that year, leading to the victim becoming pregnant and later giving birth in the Sibu Hospital on February 5, 2012.

A DNA test confirmed that Bunya is the biological father of the child.

His acquittal sparked outrage among lawyers and politicians, with some calling for harsher laws to deter acts of statutory rape.