Father, son and his friend claim that the rape of a 12-year-old girl in Kelantan is on trial

KOTA BARU, July 9 – Three men, a 46-year-old trader, his 22-year-old son and his friend, appeared in court today charged with raping a 12-year-old girl.

All three defendants, each of whom faced separate charges, pleaded not guilty after the charges were read out before Judge Zulkifli Abllah.

The trader, who is the child’s stepfather, was charged with committing the crime at a house in Beris Tengah Kubur Besar, Bachok, on the afternoon of this year and from May 18 to 22 under Section 376(3) of the Penal Code (Act 574) read with Section 16 of the Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017 (Act 792), which carries a jail term of up to 30 years and a minimum of 10 strokes of the cane if convicted.

The child’s stepbrother and his friend were accused of raping the child in the same house earlier this year in front of the stepfather and the others.

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The charge was brought under section 376(2) of the Penal Code read with section 16 of the Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017, which provides for the same penalty.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Ahmad Faiz Fitri Mohamad appeared for the prosecution and lawyers Nur Sarah Syamimi Safie and Zuhaidie Akmal Hasan Basri appeared for the victim’s stepbrother and his friend respectively.

Earlier, Ahmad Faiz Fitri had not offered bail to the accused as it was an extremely serious case involving a minor.

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Only Sarah Syamimi and Zuhaidie applied for bail for their clients and assured that they would not disturb the victim.

The court denied the stepfather and stepbrother bail, but granted the stepbrother’s friend bail of RM 15,000 with a surety. He was also ordered to surrender his passport to the court and report to the nearest police station every month.

The court set August 11 as the date for mentioning the case. — Bernama