DE facto law minister Azalina Othman said there are specific procedures for handling child witnesses, especially minors who are victims of sexual offences against them.

The minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (law and institutional reform) said these include the use of the Evidence of Child Witness Act 2007 and the Comprehensive Guidelines on Conducting Sexual Crime Cases Against Children.

She said this in response to reports of an alleged rape of a 16-year-old girl by a police officer investigating her rape case.

“I take this case seriously and I would like to emphasise that there is a specific procedure for handling child witnesses.

“This includes the Evidence of Child Witness Act 2007 and the Comprehensive Guidelines on Conducting Sexual Crime Cases Against Children. No one is above the law,” she said on her social media.

It was reported that a teenage girl had lodged a report claiming that she had been raped by a police inspector while at the Alor Star police headquarters last Wednesday.

The girl had claimed that she was taken by the inspector into his office about 6.30pm.

The New Straits Times, quoting sources, reported that the victim was initially called up by the 30-year-old inspector to have her statement recorded over her claims of being raped by her stepfather.

According to a source, the police officer then asked the girl to lie naked on a bed in the room on the pretext of examining her for evidence. He had then raped the girl.

The victim claimed the incident took almost 30 minutes, after which she was told by the police officer to put on her clothes.

She lodged a report against the officer on Saturday.

Inspector-General of Police Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani has confirmed the report was lodged and the inspector had been arrested pending investigations. – January 3, 2023.