KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 25 — A Sabah court’s sentence of 100 years in prison for a former senior policeman who raped and sodomised a 13-year-old girl this week, only to let him out on bail has alarmed some women’s and children’s rights groups here.
Several NGOs, including anti-child sexual abuse advocacy group Protect and Save the Children (P.S. The Children) president Che Nariza Hajjar Hashim said the jail sentence was just but the bail decision for Sabah anti-vice police chief Rohaizat Abdul Ani was “absolutely inappropriate” considering Malaysia is a signatory to the Convention on Rights of the Child, news portal Malaysiakini reported today.
“Granting bail to the accused may potentially put the child survivor at high risk and may potentially expose other children in the community to abuse,” she was quoted as saying.
Gender rights advocacy group All Women’s Action Society (Awam) also expressed its concerns on the potential risk to the community with the convicted rapist out on bail.
Awam president Ho Yock Lin said that the court should have rejected the bail instead.
Both non-governmental organisations suggested that Rohaizat undergo a rehabilitation programme to address the problem at its root.
“Public education and gender sensitisation policies and programmes must be institutionalised and started at a young age.
“Supporting agencies such as counselling and welfare units should be extended to the perpetrators and the survivors and their families,” Ho was quoted saying.
Rohaizat was sentenced on Wednesday to 100 years in jail and 15 strokes of the rotan on four counts of raping the pubescent girl in 2012 and one count of sodomy.
The court however granted him a stay pending his appeal and released him on a RM100,000 bail with one surety.
