Mohd Affendi, a 42-year-old widower, had sexual relations with a woman who did not belong to the family on June 16. If there is no appeal, on December 16, six strokes of punishment will be applied. rotate. The ‘crime’ is contemplated in the four States governed by the Malaysian Islamic Party. To date, it has only been implemented in Terengganu State with the first public flogging of two lesbian women in 2018.
Kuala Lumpur () – Mohd Affendi Awang, 42, was sentenced to six strokes of rotan and a fine of RM4,000 (about €860) after pleading guilty to khalwata crime under Islamic law that involves entertaining in private with a person of the opposite sex who is not part of the family. Judge Kamalruazmi Ismailessere who signed the judgment is a member of the Terengganu Islamic High Court. In addition, if he does not pay the fine, he was also given a six-month prison sentence. Mohd Affendi, a widower with five children, is a Malaysian Muslim and works in a construction company. He is the first male transgressor in Terengganu to be publicly punished for committing khalwat for the third time.
The crime of khalwat (proximity) is covered by Section 31 (a) of the Terengganu Syariah Criminal Offenses Enactment Amendment 2022. The court ordered that caning be carried out at the modern Al-Muktafi Billah Shah Mosque in Kampung Ladang, Kuala Terengganu, next December 6 after Friday prayer, if an appeal is not filed within 14 days. Mohd Affendi had pleaded guilty to having been with a 52-year-old woman who was not his wife or mahram (family member with whom marriage is illegal), around 1.40am on June 16 at a house in Kerteh, near Kemaman. The widower was sentenced to be caned in public because it was his third offense after being convicted of the same offense in July last year and February this year.
In the ruling, Judge Kamalruazmi stated that, according to Islamic law, the imposition of any punishment must serve as a lesson, education and prevention, so that the same crime is not repeated, and serve as a reminder to the community. “You have been whipped and imprisoned, and yet you have done it again. “The first punishment should have given you reason to repent,” he said. The prosecution was handled by Deputy Public Prosecutor Nik Mohd Shahril Irwan Mat Yusof, but Mohd Affendi was not represented by a lawyer. On February 19, Mohd Affendi was also sentenced to four strokes of the cane and a fine of RM3,000 when he pleaded guilty to committing khalwat for the second time.
Earlier this year, on April 17, a single mother was found guilty of khalwat in Terengganu and sentenced to flogging by the High Sharia Court. Judge Rosdi Harun handed down the sentence to the 37-year-old woman who pleaded guilty to the crime. In that case, six strokes of the cane and a fine of RM4,000 were imposed, as well as eight months in prison. The woman, who has a son, was charged under section 31(b) of the Syariah Criminal Offenses Enactment 2022 for having been with a 40-year-old man who was neither her husband nor her mahram in a house in Kemaman, around 3:15 p.m. on January 31. The woman, convicted of a similar crime in 2018, had already been fined.
According to the Terengganu Shariah Criminal Offenses Amendment Enactment 2022, for the second and subsequent offenses committed, the offender can be punished with a maximum of six strokes of the cane, a maximum fine of RM5,000 or three years’ imprisonment. Rosdi Harun ordered the woman to be flogged on May 6 in Marang Prison. However, it is unknown if the sentence was applied.
On September 3, 2018, two women were also convicted of attempting to have sex with each other in a car and were caned in a religious court. The Muslim women, aged 22 and 32, were sentenced to six lashes each by the High Sharia Court in Terengganu State. According to an official, this was the first conviction for lesbian relations and the first public flogging in the State.
Human rights activists reacted with outrage to the convictions. In Malaysia, LGBT identities are illegal under both secular and religious laws. More than 100 people witnessed the flogging of the two women. A member of the Terengganu State Executive Council, Satiful Bahri Mamat, defended the punishment, stating that it was not intended to “torture or injure”, and that it was carried out in public to “serve as a lesson to society”.
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