Kuala Lumpur. A migrant worker who reported she was gang-raped by three Malaysian policemen is receiving assistance from the Indonesian embassy in Kuala Lumpur.
Suryana Sastradiredja, a spokesman at the embassy, said that a special team had conducted an examination of the allegation, while Indonesia had also asked the Malaysian government to investigate the case.
“We will provide lawyers to her if the case proceeds to the court, while we have asked Malaysian authorities to investigate the case. If it is proven, then all the rapists must be brought to justice,” he said, adding that the victim was now under the protection of the Indonesian consulate in Penang state.
Lau Chiek Tuan, a local politician, said that the 25-year-old woman came to his office in the town of Prai, Penang, just hours after the alleged rape on Friday.
Lau said he held a press conference on Saturday, where the woman claimed the three officers in a patrol car stopped a taxi she boarded from a shopping mall early Friday morning.
“They asked to look at her passport but when she produced a photocopy, they still took her to the police station. It was just an excuse to bring her in.
“She could identify the three cops who raped her in a room where there was a mattress — I don’t know for what reason there is a mattress in a police station,” he added.
However, the former elected representative said the woman did not want to be identified and she could not be immediately contacted.
News reports cited Penang Police chief Abdul Rahim Hanafi as confirming that three policemen were remanded for a week on Friday night and suspended from duty pending investigations.
“We will make sure that the policemen will not be protected if the allegation turns out to be true,” he was quoted as saying by the New Straits Times newspaper on Sunday.
AFP could not reach Abdul Rahim for comment.
The woman, a restaurant worker, was also quoted by the English daily as saying she was scared and “had no other choice but to have sex with the three policemen.”
According to newspaper the Star, she said she was warned “not to tell anyone about the incident” after they sent her back to her home.
Malaysian police are already under fire from rising crime fears as personal tales of abduction, assault and robbery go viral online, triggering scrutiny of official claims that offenses have reduced significantly over in recent years.
In Jakarta, Migrant Care demanded President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono lodge a formal protest to the Malaysian government to give justice to the country’s migrant worker.
“The president must come up, and save our migrant worker,” said Anis Hidayah, executive director of Migrant Care, on Sunday.
She said that the government’s weak diplomacy had caused repeated abuses against Indonesian migrant workers in Malaysia.
“It seems that the government is not serious in protecting our workers abroad,” Anis said.
*Source from The Jakarta Globe : http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/indonesian-embassy-in-kl-assigns-special-team-to-migrant-worker-rape-case/555666
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