Image from Borneo Bulletin/ANN
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN (Borneo Bulletin/ANN): Mohammad Ali Yusni Bujang, a religious teacher in Brunei, was sentenced to five years’ jail and two whippings for sexual assault on a 12-year-old female student.
The Intermediate Court handed the sentence yon Fruday following the overturning of his acquittal of the charge of sexual assault by the Court of Appeal on November 11.
The defendant was charged with outraging the modesty of a 12-year-old female pupil by using criminal force on October 26, 2021.
On overturning the decision, the Court of Appeal found that Mohammad Ali Yusni had been “unarguably in a position of trust and the fact that the victim had some form or degree of liking for him... rendering her vulnerable to the predilections of a much older man who was in loco parentis to her and took advantage of her youth for illegal sexual conduct”.
They highlighted that the victim was in a “relatively passive disposition which made it easy for him to use minimal essential forceful action to assault her sexually and there was clear evidence of this. On no material matter did the (Intermediate Court) judge disbelieve the (victim)”. - Borneo Bulletin/ANN
