The Attorney-General's Chambers has filed an appeal against the Penang Sessions Court's decision last Aug 28 to bound over an electrician on a RM25,000 bond of good behaviour for three years for committing statutory rape.

ghani patail gani 060409 Attorney-general (AG) Abdul Gani Patail, in a statement, said the appeal was filed on Aug 29.

He said they would also apply for the appeal at the High Court to be expedited as there was a need to look at the interpretation of the law relating to the punishment for rape against children and the applicability of Section 294 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) for such grave offence.

The AG was referring to the decision by Sessions Court Judge Sitarun Nisa Abdul Aziz to acquit Chuah Guan Jiu, 22, of a charge of raping a 12-year-old girl, under Section 376 of the Penal Code, based on his young age at the time of the offence and because he was a first-time offender.

Abdul Gani said they were also scrutinising the Court of Appeal's decision on Aug 8 to set aside the five-year jail term imposed by the Melaka High Court on national tenpin bowler Noor Afizal Azizan for raping an underaged girl at a hotel in Ayer Keroh, Melaka in 2009, after the prosecution appealed against the five-year bond of good behaviour meted out to him by the Melaka Sessions Court under Section 294 of the CPC.

azlan "This aberration of justice for those who most need the protection of the law must be rectified," he said.

Meanwhile, he said based on statistics by the Bukit Aman criminal investigation department, in 2009 there were 281 rape cases involving children below 13 years and 1,767 cases involving victims aged between 13 and 15.

The rate dropped to 1,777 cases in 2010 (214 cases of victims under 12 years, 1,563 cases of victims between 13 and 15 years), to 1,652 cases in 2011 (202 cases involving children under 12 years old and 1,450 cases involving victims aged between 13 and 15).

"As at July this year, the statutory rape cases reported was 859 (109 involving children under 12 years old and 750 cases involving victims aged between 13 and 15), he said.

- Bernama