MP CHARLES SANTIAGO: A RAPIST IS SCOT FREE, THIS IS SHOCKING
She was 13. An 18-year-old man had sex with her. According to the Penal Code, sex with an underaged girl is statutory rape. He pleaded guilty.
Today he is free. All the sportsman, now 21, has to do is fork out RM25,000 and be on his best behaviour for the next five years.
This is the brief of a statutory rape case with an outrageous ruling.
Now, let’s get to the details.
Now, let’s get to the details.The accused person is national tenpin bowling ace Noor Afizal Azizan (right).
Taking into account that he is a national champion, the Court of Appeal ruled that a jail term is not in the public interest as Noor Afizal has a promising future.
This is shocking. When the case was first heard in the Sessions Court, the judge ruled that Noor Afizal must be bound by a five-year term for good behaviour and slapped a penalty of RM25,000 on him. But he also said that it was a consensual act.
Sex with a 13-year-old is consensual? Really? Bollocks. Whatever happened to going by the law? When the prosecution appealed the case, the High Court ruled that Noor Afizal serve a five-year jail term. But semblance of justice for the victim, a child, remains elusive with the recent ruling.
It’s difficult to comprehend the judgment, which can only be described as reckless.
Child’s trauma of no account
It has failed to take into account the abuse endured by the victim, the emotional, mental and physical well-being, not to mention a crushed future. In short, the accused person has robbed the child of her childhood. I can only imagine her trauma.
On a deeper level, the ruling reflects the state of judiciary in the country, which seem to signal that rapists can have a “Get out of Jail Free” token if they hold an important position in the society, have a great future, are famous and with a fat bank balance.
The judgment has endorsed rape and set a grotesque precedence. It has also clearly shown that the country’s judicial system is incapable of delivering justice to victims, especially children.
What kind of a society are we becoming? What kind of values are we teaching our younger generation? We live in an environment where sex between consenting adults are open to moral policing. We live in a society that is quick to condemn homosexuality and same-sex marriage.
What do we have to say about this ruling? A ruling which has allowed a rapist to walk the streets free?
I call upon child rights advocates, human rights organisations, civil society members, media workers, lawmakers, senators and the public to denounce this judgment.
In coming together, we bring with us the hope that the child victim gets justice at the Federal Court. I pledge solidarity with the victim’s family throughout this ordeal.
DO YOU LIVE IN A RAPIST-FRIENDLY STATE LIKE MALACCA ?
Is a Sexting Spouse Cheating on You?Relationship Infidelity and the Real Villain Behind It
Hitting the lottery once in a lifetime will never happen to most of us, butn just hit the criminal justice system jackpot, not once, not twice, but three times. DNA evidence has linked him to three sexual assaults, but lucky old Brian will soon be released from prison without ever serving a single day for any of the assaults in question.
So is Brian Brockington just one of the “luckiest” men alive? Perhaps. But he had some help. Continuing the lotto metaphor, you could say the powers that be screwed up and now all of us have to pay up, starting with the women DNA evidence links him to assaulting. Or in casino terms one might say the slot machines are severely broken and those in charge of the house haven’t made repairing them a priority. As a result we’ll likely see a lot more Brian Brockingtons winning the criminal lotto in coming years. Allow me to explain related articles.Why Are UMNO Leaders like Najib,Ahmad Mazlan Tamby peniskechik Addicted to Sex? Engaged in unsavory sexual beh
As reported in the New York Daily News:
Brockington, 35, was arrested on rape charges in 2007 and his cousin Rodney Howard, 36, was arrested two years later after their DNA matched evidence from a 1993 gun-point attack on a 29-year-old woman. But because of a police backlog, the DNA evidence from the crime wasn’t processed for nearly a decade — and prosecutors filed charges a day after the crime’s 10-year statute of limitations expired, said Steven Reed, spokesman for the Bronx DA. The DA’s office realized their error only after the cousins were arrested — and prosecutors were forced to drop the rape charges.Ghosts do not die. That is the power of a phantom. You can bury of the cases to the chanting of the prosecutor’s fraudulent funeral rites, but its restless spirit keeps rattling through the haunted house of the UMNO Party’s premier family. The latest rattle, in which the shocking revelations that Prime Minister Najib Razak and his wife Rosmah Mansor were involved in hatching sodomy accusations against Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim Ghani Patail has the chance to go down in his nation’s history as either a colossal waste of a promise, or as the exorcist who rid Malaysia of the ghost of all the ghost ., the then chief minister of Malacca, Abdul Rahim Thamby Chik, was reported to have raped a 15-year-old schoolgirl (under Malaysian law, sex with a minor constitutes statutory rape). Lim Guan Eng, currently the chief minister of Penang and the then MP for Kota Melaka, spoke out against the rape of a minor after the girl’s .grandmother-cum-guardian, who was also Lim’s constituent, turned to him for help.However, far from deserving justice, both Lim and the schoolgirl received their “dues”. Lim was jailed for three years for speaking up against the rape while the girl was given three years “protective custody”. As for Rahim, because of the rape and pending corruption charges, he was forced to resign, after a 12-year stint as Malacca’s chief minister.But the judiciary saw Rahim escape punishment for a crime committed; this came about after the public prosecutor withdrew the charge citing lack of evidence. The corruption charges against Rahim were also dropped.The travesty of justice is such that on Feb 28, 1995, Lim was thrown into jail after he was charged under the Sedition Act for prompting “disaffection with the administration of Malaysia”.On March 17 the same year, he was slapped with another charge under the Printing Presses and Publications Act for “maliciously printing” a pamphlet containing “false information”, specifically that Lim had used the term “imprisoned victim” to describe the schoolgirl who was raped.As a result of his trying to seek justice for the rape survivor, Lim was barred from holding public office for five years, making him ineligible to contest in the 2004 general election.As for the underage rape survivor, she was initially detained for 10 years without parental consent. She was subsequently sentenced to three years “protective custody” in a house for “wayward girls”. During Lim’s trial, the girl gave evidence that she had sex with a minister.With such lecherous politicians in our midst, the safety of girls and women – be they our sisters, daughters, mothers and foreign female workers – is at risk. There is no telling which politician is waiting to sexually assault the girls and women in this country. What is annoying is the fact that the crime is easily dismissed by threatening and buying the silence of the victim.In Rais’ case, if the rape had never taken place as he claimed, then what made his domestic helper of eight years to suddenly pack her bags and leave for home in Indonesia? If he has been such a kind and generous man as his former domestic helper claimed when retracting her allegation of rape, the question of her quitting her job would not arise. There is no doubt something is amiss here, no matter how much Rais denies it.In the case of Rahim, he was never convicted and continues to enjoy life while Lim spent three years in jail and the the rape survivor was sentenced to three years in a house for “wayward girls”. What wrong did the girl do to end up in a house for wayward girls while the perpetrator, Rahim, walked a free man? Where was justice when it was desperately needed?The public editor of the New York Times, Arthur Brisbane, sided with readers whoexpressed outrage over a story in the paper about a brutal gang rape in Texas.The story, which was published last Tuesday, focused on the rape of an 11-year-old girl by 18 boys and men in Cleveland, Texas. But critics excoriated the Times for, in their view, blaming the girl for the attack.In a blog post on Friday, Brisbane said he agreed.“My assessment is that the outrage is understandable,” he wrote. “The story dealt with a hideous crime but addressed concerns about the ruined lives of the perpetrators without acknowledging the obvious: concern for the victim.”Brisbane pointed to the sections that drew the most ire, where residents were quoted expressing worry about the burden the men will have to carry because of their crimes, and where the girl was described as often “dressed older than her age, wearing makeup and fashions more appropriate to a woman in her 20s.”“If indeed that is the only sentiment to be found in this community – and I find that very hard to believe – it becomes important to report on that as well by seeking out voices of professional authorities or dissenting community members who will at least address, and not ignore, the plight of the young girl involved,” Brisbane wrote.The Times initially defended the story in a statement, saying the writer of the article, James C. McKinley, was merely reporting what he had been told. But the paper’s standards editor, Phillip Corbett, seemed to walk back that defense in an interview with Brisbane, saying that the Times “could have done more to provide more context” to stress the fact that the victim was not being blamed.
INVESTIGATION PAPERS ON SOI LEK’S SEX VIDEO TO BE SENT TO AG
KUALA LUMPUR – The investigation papers on the distribution of the sex video involving MCA President Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek will be submitted to the Attorney-General’s Chambers soon.
Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein said Dr Chua lodged a police report after being informed by a colleague on the distribution of envelopes containing two DVDs in several areas in Batu Pahat, Johor, which was intended to smear his image.
Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein said Dr Chua lodged a police report after being informed by a colleague on the distribution of envelopes containing two DVDs in several areas in Batu Pahat, Johor, which was intended to smear his image.
Following the report, police conducted an investigation and the investigation papers submitted to the Attorney-General’s Chambers, before the Attorney-General ordered for further investigation, he said in a written reply to a question by Hee Loy Sian (PKR-Petaling Jaya Selatan) in Parliament Tuesday.
Hee wanted to know the rationale Dr Chua was not charged in court.
Hishammuddin said the case was investigated under Section 292/509 of the Penal Code.
In January 2008, Dr Chua resigned from his cabinet post and as MCA vice-president after admitting that the man in the sex video was him.
e-Patriarchy
Does the internet promote misogynistic behaviour?
The internet offers anonymity, but it may not be a safe haven for women. A University of Maryland study found that when the gender of an online username looks female, they are 25 times more likely to experience harassment. A few have even described it as a “gang-rape” like mentality when referring to the extreme levels of online misogyny.
Some women have responded by creating women-friendly online enclaves and encouraging others to write or video blog about online harassment. Is it simply the anonymity that allows men to take such liberties or is it an extension of offline sentiment?
In this episode of The Stream, we speak to Helen Lewis (@helenlewis), deputy editor of the New Statesman, and Alice Marwick (@alicetiara), Assistant Professor at Fordham University. Members of the Stream community also join the discussion via Google+ hangout.
What do you think? Does the internet promote misogynistic behaviour? Send us your thoughts and comments on Facebook or Twitter using #AJStream.
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