Sometimes girls as young as 9 fit for marriage: Malaysian MP

April 6, 2017

Kuala Lumpur, Apr 6: A Malaysian MP said girls as young as nine were “physically and spiritually” ready for marriage, as the Muslim-majority Southeast Asian country passed a law on sexual offenses against children without criminalizing child marriage.

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Shabudin Yahaya, a member of the Barisan Nasional coalition, made the comments in response to a proposal by an opposition member of Parliament to amend the Sexual Offences Against Children bill to include a ban on child marriages.

The proposal was voted down by the majority of Parliament.

“They reach puberty at the age of nine or 12. And at that time, their body is already akin to them being 18 years old. So physically and spiritually, it is not a barrier for the girl to marry,” Yahaya said on Tuesday during a debate on the bill.

He also said there was “nothing wrong” with a rape victim marrying her rapist as she would then not face a “bleak future.” Yahaya's comments sparked outrage on social media, with some opposition politicians asking for him to be fired.

In a statement on Wednesday, Yahaya said his comments were taken out of context, and that marriage was not a “back door exit to legalize rape.” He said he rejected the motion to ban child marriages as it was contrary to provisions in Shariah law.

Under both civil law and Islamic law, girls and boys younger than 18 can be married. Civil law sets the minimum age of marriage at 18, but those above 16 can be married with the permission of their state's chief minister.

Under Islamic law, children younger than 16 can get married if the Shariah courts allow it. The law passed on Tuesday makes no mention of child marriage.

It criminalizes “grooming” — touching and befriending children as a prelude to sexual abuse — and spells out penalties for making and possessing pornography involving those under 18. A special court will also be set up under the new law to deal with child sexual abuse cases more quickly.

The maximum penalty under the law is a jail term of up to 30 years and six strokes of the whip for making, possessing or distributing child pornography.

The new law comes into effect 10 months after British pedophile Richard Huckle was found guilty of abusing up to 200 babies and children, mostly in Malaysia.

Reuters reported last year that most complaints of child sexual abuse in Malaysia do not lead to successful prosecutions, largely due to weaknesses in the criminal justice system.

Only 140 of the 12,987 cases of child sexual abuse reported to police between 2012 and July 2016 resulted in convictions.

“The law is more stringent now... but not enough,” Teo Nie Ching, the opposition MP who proposed the ban child marriages, told Reuters.

She said offenders would use the absence of a ban on child marriages to get away with crimes as marital rape is not a crime in Malaysia.

There have been several cases over the years of rapists marrying their victims, including those under 18, to avoid prosecution.

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April 27,2024

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"I always wanted to be in a bar fight," said a US police official after pinning a Black man down on the ground and kneeling on his neck. The man later died at a hospital.

Ohio Police have come under intense scrutiny following the release of body camera footage showing officers pinning a Black man to the ground in a bar, reminiscent of the events that led to George Floyd's death in 2020.

The video, released by the Canton Police Department, captured the moments leading up to the death of Frank Tyson, a 53-year-old man suspected of leaving the scene of a single-car accident on April 18.

In the footage, officers are seen confronting Tyson inside a bar, where an altercation quickly ensues. Despite Tyson's pleas for help and his repeated cries of "I can't breathe," officers wrestle him to the ground and handcuff him, with one officer applying pressure to his back near his neck while saying, "You're fine." 

Tyson continues to plead for relief while lying on the floor. After several minutes, officers notice his lack of responsiveness and proceed to administer CPR. Paramedics arrive on the scene and transport Tyson to a local hospital, where he later dies.

In the body cam footage, one police officer can be heard bragging about how he always wanted to be in a "bar fight" with one of the patrons of the establishment. 

The circumstances surrounding Tyson's death draw chilling parallels to George Floyd's fatal encounter with Minneapolis Police in 2020 which sparked global outrage. 

The officers involved in Tyson's case, identified as Beau Schoenegge and Camden Burch, have been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation. 

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April 14,2024

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New Delhi: A 24-year-old student from India was shot dead inside a car in Canada's South Vancouver, the local police have said. The Vancouver Police in a statement said Chirag Antil, 24, was found dead inside a vehicle in the area after neighbours reported hearing gunshots.

"Officers were called to East 55th Avenue and Main Street around 11 pm on April 12 after residents heard the sound of gunshots. Chirag Antil, 24, was found deceased inside a vehicle in the area. No arrests have been made, and the investigation remains ongoing," the police said.

Chirag Antil's brother Ronit told reporters that Chirag seemed happy when they spoke on the phone in morning. Chirag later took out his Audi to go somewhere. That was when he was shot dead.

The Congress students' wing National Students' Union of India chief Varun Choudhary in a post on X tagging the Ministry of External Affairs requested for assistance to the student's family.

"Urgent attention regarding the murder of Chirag Antil, an Indian student in Vancouver, Canada. We urge the Ministry of External Affairs to closely monitor the progress of the investigation and ensure that justice is swiftly served," Mr Choudhary said.

"Additionally, we request the ministry to extend all necessary support and assistance to the family of the deceased during this difficult time," he said.

Chirag Antil's family is raising money through the crowdfunding platform GoFundMe to repatriate his body to India, local media reported.

Haryana resident Romit Antil, the brother of Chirag Antil, told CityNews that he was a kind-hearted person.

"My brother and I had a great relationship. We used to talk every day, day and night. I spoke to him last before the accident happened. He was kind of happy, he never had any issues or fights with anyone, ever. He was an extremely polite person," Romit Antil told CityNews.

Chirag Antil came to Vancouver in September 2022. He just finished MBA at University Canada West, and recently got his work permit.

Here are 5 facts about Chirag Antil

1.    Chirag Antil was a resident of Sonipat, Haryana.
2.    He was the youngest son of Mahavir Antil, a retired employee of the Sugar Mill Department of the Haryana Government.
3.    Chirag moved to Vancouver in 2022 to pursue higher studies at the University Canada West (UCW), in British Columbia.
4.    After completing his MBA, he started working at a company in Canada after getting a work permit.
5.    Chirag's brother Ronit shared in an interview that his younger sibling was a "kind-hearted" person. "I spoke to him last before the accident happened," he said and added that Chirag sounded "happy".

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April 28,2024

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Campuses of several US Universities have been witnessing massive protests with the students seeking a ceasefire in Israel's war with Hamas. Police have arrested over 550 protesters and some universities are witnessing violent crackdown of protests by the ruthless cops. 

Law enforcement officials at the behest of college administrators have deployed tasers and tear gas against students protesters at Atlanta's Emory University, even though the protests have been largely peaceful, say activists and media personnel present at the spot.

Emil' Keme, professor of English and Indigenous studies, at the University said that the scene reminded him of the civil war in Guatemala as a teenager.

"Police immediately began to force people to move. I felt like I was in a war zone, with all the police and their weapons, the rubber bullets. We were pushed away," Mr Keme told the Guardian describing what happened as soon as cops entered the Emory campus.

“Police took the student next to me, pushed an older lady nearby and then pushed me.”

Student protesters say they are expressing solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, where the confirmed death toll has topped 34,305, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry. They want universities to cut their investments in everything tied to Israel and weapons that fuel the war in Gaza. That means funds run by BlackRock, Google as well as Amazon's cloud service, Lockheed Martin and even Airbnb.

Video circulated widely on social media shows two women who identified themselves as professors being detained, with one of them slammed to the ground by one officer as a second officer then pushes her chest and face onto a concrete sidewalk.

Atlanta police and Georgia troopers are leading a joint operation within the campus to dismantle the tents and camps the activists have set up at the school's quadrangle. Within minutes of the authorities entering the campus, 28 people, 20 of whom were "Emory community members", had been arrested, the institute said in a statement.

The school president said that the videos of police clashing with the students "are shocking" and that he is "horrified horrified that members of our community had to experience and witness such interactions."

The university's response was likely the quickest show of police force in response to a divestment protest among the dozens nationwide that have occurred in recent weeks. It was also probably the only one where pepper balls, stun guns and rubber bullets were used.

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