Mangsa cabul rayu hakim ringankan hukuman bapa saudara

Mangsa yang kini berusia 15 tahun mengakui dirinya turut bersalah dan dia sudah memaafkan lelaki itu, justeru dia meminta hakim memberi hukuman ringan kepada tertuduh.

FMT

PETALING JAYA: Seorang mangsa yang dicabul bapa saudaranya bertindak menulis surat kepada hakim merayu tertuduh dijatuhkan hukuman ringan.

Dalam surat itu, mangsa yang kini berusia 15 tahun mengakui dirinya turut bersalah dan dia sudah memaafkan lelaki itu, justeru dia meminta hakim memberi hukuman ringan kepada tertuduh.

China Press melaporkan, tertuduh yang kini berusia 22 tahun itu mengaku bersalah terhadap tiga pertuduhan, termasuk melakukan serangan seksual terhadap anak saudaranya mulai 2011 hingga Januari 2015.

Menurut fakta kes, tertuduh yang berkongsi bilik dengan anak saudara lelaki dan perempuan serta kakaknya pada 2011, bertindak mengambil kesempatan ketika anak saudaranya sedang tidur nyenyak dengan menyentuh bahagian sulit mangsa sebelum mencabulnya.

Mangsa yang ketika itu berusia 10 tahun bagaimanapun tidak menolak mahupun mendedahkan perbuatan bapa saudaranya dan tertuduh kembali mencabul mangsa sebanyak dua kali lagi pada Januari 2015.

Perkara itu hanya terdedah ketika gadis itu mendapatkan khidmat nasihat kaunselor mengenai masalah cinta.

Timbalan Pendakwa Raya memohon mahkamah menjatuhkan hukuman penjara 21 hingga 24 tahun kerana tertuduh menyalahgunakan kepercayaan yang diberikan kakaknya, selain dia turut mempunyai teman wanita ketika itu dan aktif dalam seks.

Hakim menetapkan 22 Jun ini sebagai tarikh untuk menjatuhkan hukuman.

Nabbed IS supporter a safety expert on Malaysian VIP flights, says security official

PETALING JAYA: One of the 15 suspected Islamic State (IS) supporters arrested in Malaysia has been revealed as a senior aviation technician for a firm that serviced aircraft used by the nation’s corporate and political leaders.

The suspect, aged 49, is a former flight engineer for the Royal Malaysian Air Force, a regional security source told the South China Morning Post.

“The suspect is a senior technician whose responsibility was to check that an aircraft is safe for use. He is the person who gives the green light whether an aircraft is safe to take off or not,” said the security official.

The aircraft maintenance company services chartered aircrafts for domestic flights for so-called “VVIPs”, a term often used to describe passengers who are corporate and political leaders. The suspect worked there for 13 years, according to the official.

He was arrested in late March along with 14 other suspects in an operation covering six states as well as the capital Kuala Lumpur.

The other 14 suspects have all been charged in court, but investigations into the aviation engineer are continuing.

“He has conducted religious classes where he propagated ISIS ideology,” said the official.

“He is known to actively support IS via his Facebook account. He has shown IS videos on his mobile phone to his friends with the aim of promoting IS.”

An Airbus A321 operated by Russia’s Metrojet crashed in the Sinai in 31 October 2015, killing all 224 people on board. Russia and Western governments have said the plane was likely brought down by a bomb, and the IS militant group said it had smuggled an explosive on board.

Reuters reported in January that an EgyptAir mechanic, whose cousin joined Islamic State in Syria, is suspected of planting the bomb, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The official said the Malaysian technician’s links to ISIS “was very worrying.” “He could easily sabotage an aircraft. He could also put bombs or smuggle weapons onto a plane,” said the official.

Counter-terrorism experts described the technician as a potential “insider threat”.

“This is a matter for concern because this is precisely what I and others have referred to as the ‘insider threat’ of transnational terrorism,” said Associate Professor Kumar Ramakrishna, head of policy studies at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies Singapore.

The “insider threat” is dangerous as it enables IS to attack targets from within the system, by recruiting already self-radicalised individuals in sensitive jobs, said Prof Kumar.

“Such a person would have the ability, at least in theory, to sabotage an aircraft with VVIPs on board either through by deliberately tampering with onboard systems, causing them to fail in mid-flight, or by placing an improvised explosive device onboard, assuming that he can gain access to one, or has the ability make one himself,” said Prof Kumar.

Such an insider also had the potential to directly assassinate a target, “because the person presumably would have the necessary security clearance already and would hence be less likely to attract attention. This is why enhanced and more regular security screenings are required in certain sensitive sectors,” he said.

The engineer is the second suspect in the aviation industry to have been arrested by Malaysian police over their alleged support for IS.

Last year, an armed auxiliary police officer who handled the screening of explosives and dangerous goods at the KL International Airport was arrested.

He is alleged to have helped facilitate his brother-in-law’s departure to Syria to fight for IS by escorting him to immigration, where the officer’s presence helped ensure there would be less scrutiny paid to the passenger’s final destination.

To date, Malaysian police have arrested more than 160 IS suspects. At least 19 Malaysians are known to have died in Iraq and Syria fighting for IS, some of them as suicide bombers.

Comango: Malaysia regressing in some human rights

PETALING JAYA, May 20 — Malaysian NGOs accused Putrajaya today of not doing enough to improve human rights in the country as pledged with the United Nations Human Rights Council.

According to the Coalition of Malaysian Non-Governmental Organisations (Comango), of the 150 human rights recommendations accepted by Malaysia in 2014, 60 of them were measurable and the situation was regressing in 57 per cent of these.

“We are seeing increasing violations of human rights and trend of growing impunity.

“For instance, instead of repealing the Sedition Act, we see an increasing trend of use of this Act for political motives since 2014,” Comango representative Sevan Doraisamy, who is also Suaram executive director, told a press conference on the coalition’s mid-term report on Malaysia’s progress in implementing its human rights pledges.

Sevan also said instead of taking steps to promote the rights of journalists and bloggers to freely exercise their rights to freedom of expression, Malaysia was strengthening laws to silence the media.

“The proposed amendments to the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 will likely aim at controlling or even stifling political content online rather than facilitating freedom of expression and information,” he said.

Another Comango representative, Jerald Joseph, from human rights group Pusat KOMAS, said the country also showed little or no improvement in terms of national unity and social cohesion.

“When there was a racial riot in the Low Yat incident, we saw a raced-based IT mall built and this also does not gel well with the 1Malaysia concept that the government is championing,” he said.

Mohd Rizal Rozhan, of Selangor Civic Community Association (Empower), said Malaysia has five years to fulfill its recommendations that are aimed at improving the human rights situation on the ground together with some 193 members of the United Nation.

He said the recommendations comprise eight sectors—international obligation; civil rights; economic, social and cultural rights; marginalised groups; national mechanisms on human rights; trafficking in persons; national unity and human rights education.

Asked if it was fair to penalise the government given that it still have another two years to fulfil these, Jerald said it was up to Putrajaya to explain.

“We hope and wish for the government to call us in to work on these recommendations together but to date, we have not received any such invitation,” he said.

- See more at: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/comango-malaysia-regressing-in-some-human-rights#sthash.SpRaJL0h.dpuf

Kho Jabing hanged

SINGAPORE, May 20 — A Malaysian murder convict was hanged in Singapore today, police said, hours after the city-state’s highest court rejected a final bid for him to escape the gallows.

“A 32-year-old male Malaysian national, Jabing Kho had his death sentence carried out on 20 May 2016 at Changi Prison Complex,” the Singapore Police Force said in a statement.

Kho, who was sentenced to death in 2010 for the murder of a Chinese construction worker, had been due to hang in Changi Prison at dawn today, but was granted a brief last-minute reprieve after his lawyer filed a challenge.

The Court of Appeal heard the latest plea this morning but said it raised no new arguments about the 2008 robbery gone wrong, clearing the way for the execution.

“This case has been about many things but today, it’s about the abuse of the process of the court,” said Court of Appeal Judge Chao Hick Tin.

Allowing Kho to continue with legal challenges would throw the judicial system “into disrepute,” he added.

Executions in Singapore are normally carried out by hanging at dawn on Fridays.

After Kho was sentenced to death in 2010, Singapore amended its mandatory death penalty for murder, giving judges the discretion to impose life imprisonment under certain circumstances.

Kho’s case was reviewed and he was re-sentenced to a life term in 2013. But state prosecutors appealed that ruling and his death sentence was reinstated in January 2015.

He was scheduled for execution on November 6 last year but another last-minute appeal saved him.

Kho’s accomplice in the crime had his conviction for murder overturned and got more than 18 years in prison and 19 strokes of the cane.

Singapore, which has rejected calls by rights groups to abolish the death penalty, executed four people in 2015, one for murder and three for drug offences, according to prison statistics.

Malaysia also uses capital punishment, executing murderers and drug traffickers by hanging, a system which, like that in Singapore, dates back to British colonial rule. — AFP

Dr M wants one-to-one contest but cautious about PAS candidacy

Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said PAS' insistence on contesting in the Kuala Kangsar and Sungai Besar by-elections leaves the people with no choice but to back the Islamic party if they want to see BN under Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak defeated.

However, he raised concerns that PAS' insistence for a one-on-one battle against BN may just be a ploy for the Islamic party to withdraw at the eleventh hour and allow a walkover victory for BN.

"PAS may be pretending to nominate a candidate and when the rakyat do not put up their candidate, PAS will then pull out so that BN can win uncontested," he said in a blog posting today.

Mahathir had emphasised on the importance of a one-on-one contest in the by-elections to ensure BN is defeated.

The former premier, who had been accused of colluding with the opposition, was careful to refer to Pakatan Harapan as the "rakyat".

"The rakyat should only put up a single candidate. Unfortunately, PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang wants to put a PAS candidate and BN will benefit if the rakyat put up another candidate.

"In order to avoid a split among the rakyat, if PAS puts up a candidate, the rakyat will need to give full support to PAS so that PAS can win big and BN will lose big," he said.

Mahathir said that even if PAS won, it would not be able to form the government and would remain a "slave" to BN which has superior numbers.

Pull out at the eleventh hour

However, Mahathir's reservation that PAS may pull out at the eleventh hour remained.

"We will not be surprised if PAS does this. (PAS president) Abdul Hadi Awang appears to have accepted 'cash is king' Najib even though the world perceives Najib as corrupt.

"That is Hadi's choice and his right. That was why PAS has split," he said.

Mahathir noted that Najib had tried to take credit for BN's thumping win in the Sarawak election even though he claimed it was due to the state's popular Chief Minister Adenan Satem.

A such, he said, BN's defeat in the by-elections was necessary to ensure that Najib cannot claim he has the people's backing.

Mahathir also emphasised that the bid to remove Najib is a people's movement and not merely an opposition's movement as the prime minister is trying to paint it.

"Only after Najib is no longer prime minister can democracy be restored and all the demands of parties be championed for.

"After democracy is restored, the rakyat can make any demands they want and on who will lead the country," he said.