[UPDATED] Court rejects bail for 15-year-old, puts her in police custody

KUALA LUMPUR – The Kemaman magistrates’ court has rejected a bail application for a 15-year-old rape victim who recently made headlines in Terengganu for stabbing the baby she birthed. 

Her lawyer Nurainie Haziqah Shafii said the court did not provide any reason for the rejection after she filed the submission. 

The teenager will now be taken under police custody, with her next case management to be heard only a month from now on March 16. 

Nurainie said the girl was earlier charged under Section 302 of the Penal Code for murder. 

“For murder, trial must be conducted. She understood the charge,” the lawyer told The Vibes today. 

“After the charge was read to her, it was followed by the bail application. I informed the court that she is under 16, she is a girl and is sick after only recently giving birth. But they rejected the application without giving a reason.”

Section 388 of the Criminal Procedure Code stipulates that the court may direct any person under the age of 16, or any woman, or any sick or infirm person accused of a non-bailable offence to be released on bail. 

The 15-year-old girl, who was reported to have been pregnant after being raped, was arrested after the police found a dead newborn baby at a house in Kemaman on February 8. 

Kemaman district police chief Hanyan Ramlan had said that preliminary investigations found that the baby, who was found dead with chest injuries, had been stabbed with a sharp object. 

The girl was remanded at the Kemaman Hospital Maternity Ward for seven days beginning February 9 to facilitate the probe. 

Nurainie said today’s hearing was done inside a converted children’s court, and that the teenager will also go through a juvenile process considering her age. – The Vibes, February 15, 2022