By: PATRICK LEE & TEOH EL SEN
POLICE failed to turn up to record a statement from human rights group Tenaganita over rape allegations involving Senior Minister, Rais Yatim and his former maid.
Tenaganita Executive Director, Irene Fernandez said that officers from the Ampang police district headquarters were due to arrive at the group’s Jalan Gasing office at 3pm today.
“I was expecting to get a response from the police today,” Fernandez said, after waiting for more than an hour for the officers to show up.
She said the officers intended to question her over a report allegedly posted on the group’s website last Dec 26.
The report, about Rais’s alleged rape of his Indonesian domestic worker in 2007, was supposedly written by domestic workers’ rights group Migrant Care.
Fernandez said police initially sought an interview with her on May 12. As she was away then, she postponed the meeting to yesterday. Since no police officer turned up, she re-scheduled the meeting for today.
She called the Ampang police district headquarters several times today, but received no answer.
Fernandez said police originally intended to speak with her in January, but failed to do so at the time.
She also said Tenaganita could not have posted the report on Dec 26 since its office was closed for a week after Christmas.
‘Police not interested’
There were concerns about the group being singled out over the investigations, seemingly resurrected after a six-month hiatus.
Tenaganita’s lawyer, Latheefa Koya, questioned the police’s motives. She asked why they were more interested in investigating the exposure of the alleged rape rather than the crime itself.
“Why have they not done any investigation of the allegation? Have they taken statements from Rais Yatim or Migrant Care? As far as we know, the police are not interested in investigating the allegation.”
Ampang Jaya district police chief ACP Amiruddin Jamaluddin told FMT that today’s no-show was merely a case of miscommunication.
“My officers were actually waiting for a call from the NGO as they have tentatively stated the time to meet but had yet to confirm if they were available,” he said.
Amiruddin added that the probe over Rais’s alleged rape was not yet closed. Fernandez also spoke of a rise in cases of employers sexually abusing their domestic workers.
She said that 40% of cases reported to the organisation this year involved sexual assault and that this was an increase of 20% over the same period last year.
“There have always been cases of domestic workers being abused or raped, but to see it at 40% is very worrying,” she said.
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