4 policemen arrested for rape of RI woman
4 policemen arrested for rape of RI woman
Agencies, Kuala Lumpur
Four trainee police officers were arrested for allegedly raping an Indonesian woman in southern Malaysia, prompting Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on Thursday to order a review of police disciplinary measures.
The 32-year-old woman told police she was abducted while walking in Johor Baru city on Wednesday and raped, The Star newspaper reported.
The woman accused the four of taking her to Mahmoodiah Road Muslim cemetery and gang raping her, state police chief Musa Hassan was quoted as saying.
Police picked up the four suspects, marine police recruits aged between 22 and 24, from a training center a few hours later, Musa Hassan, a senior police official, was cited as saying.
Badawi on Thursday ordered the country's police chief to improve discipline in the ranks after four police trainees were accused of raping an Indonesian woman.
Badawi also said he instructed Police Chief Bakri Omar to review police training and study whether tougher punishments should be handed out to officers guilty of committing abuses.
"I am saddened by the incident. The inspector general of police (Bakri) has reported the matter to me involving the policmen. It is a very serious case," he said.
Badawi said as officers of the law, police are given the task of ensuring security.
"We do not want them to commit crimes. We do not want such people to be in the force," he said.
Last year, a police officer was sentenced to 17 lashes with a cane and 15 years in prison for raping two women from Indonesia and the Philippines in a Kuala Lumpur police station.
Two other police officers are facing trial for raping a 13- year-old girl at an immigration detention center in Sabah state on Borneo island while she was awaiting deportation to the Philippines.
The rape allegations also come just days after the nation was shocked by the brutal rape and murder of two schoolgirls -- one in Johor state and the other in the eastern Sabah state on Borneo island.
On Saturday, Nurulhuda Ghani was found barely alive and naked on the floor in the toilet of a guardhouse just 100 meters from her home. She had been gang-raped by three men and choked, and later died in hospital.
Nurulhuda had been sent to a nearby grocery shop on an errand for her mother.