Kelantan is among several states that have a high number of sexual crimes against children despite having its own syariah laws.
Dismissing Sik member of parliament Ahmad Tarmizi Sulaiman’s remarks that every state needed in the country to enforce its own syariah laws to combat sexual crimes, Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said it was not a failure of civil law which were behind the rise of rape cases.
“Kelantan’s population is 98 per cent Malay Muslim and has its own Syariah Criminal Code.
“Yet, it has the highest number of sexual crimes, and it is on the upward trend. These numbers don’t lie.
“Cases are also increasing in Kedah as well as Terengganu while the number is Penang has dropped between 2022 and last year,” he said at the ministry’s headquarters today.
Saifuddin said police statistics show that sexual crimes included rape, molest, possessing pornographic materials, physical sexual assault and incest were committed mostly by those in the Bottom 40 (B40) group.
“For every 100 offenders, 75 per cent are from B40 and this means such crimes are committed by those in lower economic groups.
“As for the Medium 40 group, for every 100 offenders some 67 per cent of them are Malays.
“Statistics showed that 46 per cent of sexual crimes happens among friends, 25 per cent among family members and nine per cent among strangers,” he said.
Saifuddin said Tarmizi should not point fingers and instead work together with all quarters to tackle such crimes through education programmes to raise awareness.
At the Dewan Rakyat yesterday, Tarmizi had quoted federal police Criminal Investigation Department director Datuk Seri Mohd Shuhaily Mohd Zain as saying that sexual crimes had increased by 11.8 per cent or 202 cases from last year to now.
Tarmizi said civil laws had failed to combat the increasing number of such cases and that syariah laws needed to be enforced in every state. – NST