Malaysia's former anti-vice chief gets 100 years for rape, sodomy

Deputy Supt Rohaizat Abd Ani (centre) leaving the Section Court in Kota Kinabalu in 2013. PHOTO: THE STAR

KOTA KINABALU (THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK, AFP): A high-ranking policeman, who was a former state anti-vice chief, was jailed a total of 100 years and given 15 strokes of the rotan for raping and sodomising a 13-year-old girl.

Deputy Superintendent Rohaizat Abd Ani, 56, a father of two children, was found guilty of four charges of rape and one of sodomy between February and May 2012.

Sessions judge Ainul Shahrin Mohamad slapped the maximum 20 years jail for each of the charge.

Rohaizat was found guilty of raping and sodomising the victim between 4.30pm and 5.30pm in a room at Tang Dynasty Hotel at Kota Kinabalu on Feb 1, 2012. The next day, he again raped the girl between 12.30pm and 1.30pm in another room of the same hotel.

Between May 1 and 6, the accused raped the girl in a room of the same hotel.

Rohaizat will have to serve 80 years in all - 20 years for the first two charges (both to run concurrently) and 20 years each for the other three (to run consecutively).

Rohaizat, dressed in a dark grey jacket, remained calm and showed little or no expression. His wife, who was present in court, also showed no expression as the judge read out the sentence.

Judge Ainul Shahrin allowed a stay of execution of the sentences pending appeal in the High Court. Bail was set at RM100,000 (S$33,000) with one local surety and the accused was told to surrender his passport and report to the police in Bukit Aman on the 1st and 15th of each month.

The judge agreed with Deputy Public Prosecutor Azeezi Nordin that as a senior police officer, Rohaizat, who was 52 at the time of the incident, should be a guardian to the public and not otherwise.

Mr Azeezi said: "The victim was 13 years old at the time of incident, she was raped and sodomised by a 52-year-old, it was clearly a total manipulation of an adult against a child.

"The repetitious act of the accused in three months starting from February showed that the accused never considered the victim's age, emotions and consequences of his action."

"He should be a guardian to the public, not otherwise," the deputy public prosecutor was quoted as saying by the Malay Mail Online news portal. The accused "never considered the victim's age, emotions and consequences of his action in the eyes of the law", he told the court in Kota Kinabalu, capital of the Malaysian state of Sabah on Borneo island.

Rohaizat's lawyer, Mr Zahir Shah, said they would file an appeal against the sentence.

Rohaizat, who is suspended from duties, had served as Setiu police chief briefly and was serving as deputy chief Federal Reserve Unit in Penang when he was charged in August 2013.

Counsel Mary Lee was holding a watching brief for the Sabah Women Action Resource Group (SAWO).

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