PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal has reinstated the 13-year jail sentence imposed on a former religious teacher of a tahfiz and orphanage in Pahang for sexually assaulting a male student five years ago.
A three-judge panel led by Justice Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim also restored the sentence of three strokes of the rotan imposed by the Sessions Court on Mohd Faiza Rizza Mohd Ropi.
The 38-year-old, who now works at a petrol station as a pump attendant, had been acquitted and discharged of the charge by the High Court after appealing his conviction, which led to the prosecution’s appeal to overturn his acquittal.
The panel also ordered that the time spent in prison by Mohd Faiza, following his unsuccessful attempt to obtain a stay of execution of his sentence pending disposal of his appeal in the High Court, be included as part of his total sentence, Bernama reported.
Judges Mohamed Zaini Mazlan and Azmi Ariffin, who were part of the panel, also restored the Sessions Court’s order for Mohd Faiza to undergo counselling during imprisonment and to be placed under police supervision for two years after completing prison time.
Justice Azmi, in delivering the court’s unanimous decision, said the prosecution had proven all elements of the charge under Section 14 (a) of the Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017.
He said the court disagreed with the Judicial Commissioner’s earlier findings that the charge against Mohd Faiza should have been brought under Section 14 (d) of the same law.
He said the court found no contradictions in the victim’s testimony and his police report.
Justice Azmi said a police report by Mohd Faiza filed two years after he was charged in court, claiming he was falsely accused by the victim, was an afterthought and a fabrication.
On Nov 26, 2021, Mohd Faiza was sentenced to 13 years in jail and three strokes of the rotan by the Sessions Court for physical sexual assault on the 17-year-old student in the warden’s room of a tahfiz and orphanage hostel in Temerloh in June 2019.
On May 11, 2023, the High Court overturned the Sessions Court’s ruling and acquitted and discharged Mohd Faiza. The prosecution subsequently appealed to the Court of Appeal.
The DPP was P. Sarulatha while lawyers Shashi Devan and Muhammad Nazreen Jaafar Abdullah represented Mohd Faiza.
