The Star, Kuala Lumpur, 14 May 1997

11 years and four strokes for rapist

KUALA LUMPUR: A video shopowner who raped his 15-year-old assistant was jailed 11 years and ordered to be given four strokes of the rotan by a Sessions Court yesterday.

Mansor Mat Noor, 49, was found guilty by judge Zura Yahya who said his actions were "inhuman."

"You have abused your position (as a boss) and have taken advantage of a minor," she added.

Zura sentenced Mansor to 10 years in jail and two strokes of the rotan for the first count and 11 years and two strokes for the second count.

GUILTY ... Mansor being led out of the courtroom by a policeman.

She, however, ordered the jail sentences to run concurrently and allowed a stay of execution pending Mansor's appeal to the High Court.

Mansor raped the girl twice in a hotel room at Lorong Haji Hussin off Jalan Raja Abdul Aziz on Nov 16 and 17, 1995.

Defence counsel Tabian Tahir mitigated for a lenient sentence as Mansor had suffered shame and was divorced from his wife because of the charges.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Noor Ruwena Mohd Nurdin pressed for a deterrent sentence, saying the girl had agreed to follow Mansor to Kuala Lumpur to work but was instead raped.

She said the girl had suffered gravely to the extent that she tried to kill herself by drinking poison.

Straits Times, Singapore, 16 May 1997

Visitors head straight for the Final Room

(extract)

YOU shall be taken to a place of execution where you shall suffer death by hanging -- those are the last words a person convicted of a capital offence hears before he is taken to Death Row, awaiting the day a noose will be tightened around his neck.

What happens on execution day, though, is a closely- guarded secret, with prison authorities around the world loath to provide details.

Does a convict's head snap? Is death instantaneous?

Questions like these are being answered at Pudu Prison, the 106-year-old penal institution which opened its iron doors to the public on May 3, more than six months after the last inmate was transferred out of the colonial landmark to a modern facility in Sungai Buloh.

Since its opening, the latest tourist spot in town has been attracting quite a number of Malaysians and tourists, with more than 7,000 paying the M$12 (S$6.80) entrance fee over the first weekend alone.

......

A stone's throw away from Death Row is Bilik Asingan or Segregation Room, where the attention of visitors is drawn automatically to a television screen.

In the video, a prisoner is strapped spread-eagle to a wooden stand, his buttocks awaiting the lashing of a rattan cane, 1.2 cm in diameter.

Down comes the cane with a whooshing whistle, breaking the man's skin. By the time the 10th stroke is administered, the convict is lifeless.

Faces around the room are twisted into a grimace. Datuk Jaafar will not divulge whether the caning is simulated or genuine.

"That is our selling point," says the former director-general of the Prisons Department.

But really, he does not have to depend on the macabre to promote Pudu as a tourist attraction, albeit a temporary one.

Walking through the six prison blocks with 130 cells is an experience in itself.

The scent of the prison's history and that of its countless occupants can still be detected in the peeling paint, huge rolls of rusty barbed wire which ring the perimeter and graffiti in the rectangular cells.

Drawings of women were a particular favourite with the budding artists. Others scrawled their names, addresses and contact number on the uneven walls -- hoping perhaps to compare notes some day with other occupants.

Built in 1891 by the British, the prison was equipped to handle only 600 inmates. Later, new blocks were added and the capacity was increased to 2,000.

But, in 1985, more than 6,500 were housed, resulting in inmates having to sleep in shifts.

With overcrowding came other problems. A former warden who now works as a tour guide says the mischief level among prisoners went up during this time. There were more fights and attempts to smuggle contraband into the institution.

Some of their "handicraft" is available for viewing. Sharpened toothbrushes, pieces of iron joined together and broken pieces of glass were among the weapons seized.

Also confiscated were drugs and money which were smuggled into prison by visitors, concealed at times in hollow toothpaste tubes and in between sliced bars of soap.

More than M$1.7 million has been spent to turn the prison into a tourist attraction, with the bulk going into the construction of an exhibition room where memorabilia and records of years gone are displayed.

In six months, the prison will be history, giving way to development. There are plans to turn the whole place into a shopping area.

But some people are lobbying the government to keep the facade of the prison or at least the main gate as a reminder of what it was.

The Star, Kuala Lumpur, 24 May 1997

Indon gets 20 years for raping minor

KUALA LUMPUR: An Indonesian youth was sentenced to a total of 20 years in jail and ordered to be whipped 20 times by a Session Court here yesterday for raping an underaged girl twice.

Aris Hadip, 19, pleaded guilty to raping a 14-year-old girl in his room at a shophouse in Pesiaran Ara Kiri, Bangsar, between 2am and 6am on April 28 this year.

He was jailed 10 years and ordered to be given 10 strokes of the rotan for each of the two rape charges.

The jail terms which are effective from his date of arrest on May 4, however, are to run concurrently.

Aris, a restaurant helper, initially refused to mitigate when offered by the court.

Only on being told by Sessions Judge Jalaludin Saleh of his right to plead for leniency that Aris said it was the girl who insisted on spending the night with him.

"I was about to send her home after spending the evening with her in the city but she was adamant. She wanted to follow me home and stay with me.

"Since she asked for it, I let her stay," Aris said, adding that the sexual intercourse was done with both parties' consent.

Jalaludin then explained to Aris that having sex with a girl under 16, although with her consent, was a statutory offence in this country.

The judge asked if Aris knew her age, he said no. Jalaludin said: "Ask first, next time."