KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 4 — The disgraced Malaysian diplomat who “terrorised” and indecently assaulted a woman in New Zealand has been deported home, according to the country’s police.
New Zealand Herald reported that Muhammad Rizalman Ismail, who was a military attaché at Malaysia’s Wellington embassy at the time of the attack, had ended his nine-month house detention sentence yesterday.
A police spokesman confirmed to the paper that Rizalman was escorted from Wellington to Kuala Lumpur by two New Zealand police officers last night.
A spokesman for its Justice Minister Amy Adams also said that the minister had issued a removal order to send Rizalman home under the Extradition Act.
Rizalman admitted to indecent assault November last year after denying initial charges of attempted rape and burglary.
In February, he was sentenced to serve nine months confined to a house, but not the Malaysian High Commission.
Rizalman had followed Wellington woman Tania Billingsley to her home in May 2014, waited about 30 minutes outside and then entered the house and walked into her bedroom naked from the waist down.
According to the New Zealand Herald, Rizalman, 39, has admitted to defecating outside Billingsley’s house, but said it was because of diarrhoea and that he had entered the Wellington woman’s house ― without underwear or trousers ― to clean himself up.
Prosecutors have reportedly argued that Rizalman had a sexual motive and suggested that the former assistant to Malaysia’s defence attaché was trying to cast a love spell on Billingsley by defecating on her patio.
Rizalman’s defence has reportedly argued that he was suffering from mental illness at the time of the attack.
