KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 4 — The Sarawak case in which a statutory rape charge against a man was dropped after he married the 15-year-old victim will be reviewed by the High Court, the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry said today.
Minister Datuk Seri Rohani Abdul Karim said the deputy public prosecutor in the case of Ahmad Syukri Yusuf had informed the ministry of the action following the girl’s decision to withdraw her complaint.
“The DPP has just informed us that a review will be conducted in the High Court,” she said in a press conference today.
“It doesn’t mean that because you are married, that the rape case disappears. The marriage could have been a family decision. But rape is rape, and he must go through the punishment if he is found guilty,” she added.
Malay Mail Online obtained a copy of the recording of the press conference.
Ahmad Syukri was charged in Kuching with statutory rape of a girl late last year who was then 14 at the time of the offence, reported the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
According to English language daily Borneo Post, Ahmad Syukri was accused of committing statutory rape twice, the first in the middle of October and the second on October 16 last year.
The charge saw him facing up to 30 years in jail and whipping for the offence.
Ahmad Syukri, who is reported to be 22 by the Thomson Reuters Foundation and 28 by Borneo Post Online, submitted a marriage certificate with the girl withdrawing her complaint, following which, Sessions Court judge Afidah Abdul Rahman ruled a discharge not amounting to acquittal.
Rohani said the ministry viewed such cases seriously and questioned whether Ahmad Syukri’s marriage to his alleged victim was carried out following the existing procedures put in place.
“Before they got married, did they get the necessary permissions? There are rules that must be followed. They would need to get the clearance of the Shariah court, the family, as well as the approval of the Mentri Besar or Chief Minister,” she said.
In Malaysia, the legal minimum age for marriage under civil law for both genders is 18, with marriages involving those under this age requiring consent from the state mentri besar or chief minister.
Shariah laws here place the legal marrying age for Muslim boys and girls at 18 and 16, with girls aged below 16 allowed to be married off with the consent of the Shariah court.
Rohani had in April announced that there were over a thousand applications for child marriages by Muslims in 2015, with 827 applications submitted to the Shariah Judiciary Department and 294 cases under the Sarawak Native Customs Council.
