KUCHING, Sept 10 — Sarawak welfare, community wellbeing, women and family development minister Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah said today the state government will discuss a proposal to include castration to be imposed against rapists.
She said a high-level meeting on the matter will be held tomorrow, and that the proposal has received support from concerned citizens over the rise of incest cases after she posted on it her Facebook page.
“We will look at this proposal at our third state women and family council meeting tomorrow,” she told reporters after attending a tea party to mark the official birthdays of the Sarawak Governor Tun Abdul Taib Mahmud and the Yang di-Pertuan Agong XV Sultan Muhammad V, which both fell on September 9.
Fatimah said the meeting, which she called, will also be attended by the representatives from her ministry, police, non-governmental organisations and medical department.
Fatimah agreed that the proposal would involve amending the Penal Code, which at present does not provide castration as a form of penalty against the rape offenders.
“There seems to be more incest cases reported this year when compared to last year,” she said, adding that there could be more cases which remained unreported because of the unwillingness of the victims or close relatives to lodge reports with the police due to various reasons.
Fatimah said her ministry will get the latest number of the incest cases from the briefing by the police at tomorrow’s meeting.
Among incest cases reported in Sarawak so far was that of a 12-year old girl who was allegedly raped by her 72-year-old grandfather, 40-year old uncle and three other relatives, aged between 16 and 21.
All five have charged in court in Limbang in July this year.
In Serian, a 57-year-old grandfather, a father and two uncles were charged last month with raping two sisters, aged 14 and 19, in the past five years.
The elder victim is currently seven-month pregnant.
In Sarikei, a 15-year old student was impregnated after her father had allegedly raped her since July last year.
The father was arrested early this month when he visited the victim at the Sarikei hospital and in Sibu, a 53-year-old man and his son, 25, were also arrested early this month for allegedly raping a seven-year old girl.
The girl is the granddaughter of the man and niece of the son.
Earlier this month in Betong, a farmer was sentenced to 22 years in jail by the Sessions Court for raping and molesting his underage daughter over the past three years.
