By Dorcas Ting
KUCHING, May 24: An Indonesian father of five who was sentenced to 100 years behind bars and be whipped 50 times for raping his underage eldest daughter had his sentence reduced to 50 years’ jail and 30 strokes of the rotan by the High Court today following an appeal.
Sujiman, 32, who was staying in Kampung Serasot, Bau, was previously slapped with five charges in two Sessions Courts. All the charges were framed under Section 376B of the Penal Code for raping his eldest daughter since 2015 when she was almost 10 years old then.
For the 5 charges, he was sentenced to a total of 100 years in jail and 50 strokes of the rotan. He appealed against the sentence.
For the two charges at Sessions Court 1, Sujiman was given 20 years in jail and 10 strokes for each charge. The jail terms were to run concurrently.
But today, High Court Judge Supang Lian affirmed and maintained the sentence of 20 years for each charge to run concurrently, but the whippings were reduced to 6 strokes for each charge.
For the three charges in Sessions Court 3, he was sentenced to 20 years behind bars and 10 strokes of the rotan for each charge. The judge ordered the imprisonment terms to run consecutively. The judge also ordered the imprisonment terms to run consecutively to the imprisonment terms meted out in Sessions Court 1.
Following the appeal, Judge Supang Lian sentenced Sujiman to 10 years’ jail for all three charges and amended the whippings to 6 strokes for each charge.
The High Court judge ordered the jail sentences to run consecutively, meaning the 10 years’ jail to run upon expiry of the 20 years’ imprisonment.
According to the facts of the case, it was a medical officer in Bau who lodged the police report after discovering that the victim had been sexually violated by her biological father without the knowledge of the victim’s mother.
The appellant had taken advantage of the victim whenever there was nobody at home, and Sujiman would blackmail the daughter whenever she tried to defend herself. — DayakDaily
