KOTA KINABALU, Jan 22 — A security personnel won in his last bid to appeal against his conviction and sentence after the Court of Appeal here today freed him from a charge of trying to rape an 18-year-old university student six years ago.
Justice Datuk Che Mohd Ruzima Ghazali, who sat together with Justices Datuk Azmi Ariffin and Datuk Azhahari Kamal Ramli unanimously acquitted and discharged Arshad Masdin, 32, after setting aside his conviction and sentence which was affirmed by a High Court here.
Arshad, who was represented by counsel Hamid Ismail and Shahlan Jufri, was appealing against the High Court decision made on February 9, 2023.
On June 30, 2020, the appellant was sentenced to 13 years’ imprisonment plus six strokes of the cane and three years of police supervision by a Sessions Court here after a full trial.
The Sessions Court had found Arshad guilty of attempting to rape the victim by taking off her clothes with force in a dormitory of the university at 12.30am on July 15, 2018.
Arshad, who worked in the security division of the university, was convicted under Section 376(2)(a) of the Penal Code read together under Section 511 of the same Code.
The indictment carries a jail term of up to 15 years, and also liable to whipping, upon conviction.
The lower court had ordered for the appellant’s jail term to be served from his date of conviction on June 30, 2020.
During the trial stage, the prosecution had called 22 witnesses to testify against Arshad and the accused had produced three witnesses for his defence.
This case was first brought to court on July 25, 2018. — The Borneo Post