PUTRAJAYA, May 12 — An odd job worker will serve 30 years behind bars and receive eight strokes of the rotan for raping and committing physical sexual assault on a 12-year-old girl who later gave birth.
The Court of Appeal's three-member bench comprising Justices Datuk Seri Kamaludin Md Said, Datuk Hashim Hamzah and Datuk Azman Abdullah rejected Ruslan Bacika’s appeal to have the jail sentence for both offences to be served concurrently.
“To us, you are very lucky to get the sentence as compared to another rape case recently where the person got 36 years and 20 strokes of the rotan,” Justice Kamaludin told Ruslan.
Ruslan, 59, pleaded guilty at the Sessions Court to a charge of raping the girl in a house on March 27, 2018, and two charges of committing physical sexual assault on the girl on June 15 and June 19, 2018.
On February 13, 2019, the Sessions Court sentenced him to 20 years imprisonment and ordered that he be given four strokes of the rotan and ordered the punishment to begin from the date of his arrest on July 25, 2018.
Ruslan was also sentenced to 10 years in jail and two strokes of the rotan for each of the physical sexual assault charges, ordered to run concurrently, which means he will only serve 10 years in jail.
However, the imprisonment term will only commence after Ruslan completed serving the 20 years jail term for the rape offence.
He lost his appeal against his sentence in the High Court which was dismissed on January 22, 2020.
According to the facts of the case, the victim was staying with her mother in a rented room at the house where Ruslan was also renting a room.
A lawyer from the National Legal Aid Foundation, P. A. Sharon, appeared for Ruslan while deputy public prosecutor Dhiya Syazwani Izyan Mohd Akhir prosecuted the case.
On Wednesday (May 10), a former crane operator was sentenced to 36 years in jail and ordered to be whipped 20 times by the Court of Appeal for raping two of his underaged daughters.
— Bernama
