Kota Kinabalu: A 30-year-old local bomoh saw his sentence of six years' jail and two strokes of the cane for raping a woman in Kota Belud seven years ago increased to 15 years' jail and eight lashes of the cane by the High Court on Wednesday.Chief Justice of Sabah and Sarawak Tan Sri Richard Malanjum allowed the appeal by the prosecution against the sentence imposed on Ajimi Abd Rashid by the Sessions Court on March 25, 2010.
He ordered the sentence passed by the Sessions Court to be set aside and substituted it with the sentence of 15 years of imprisonment and eight strokes of the cane.
Malanjum held that the court agreed with the prosecution that the sentence was inadequate, considering the facts of the case and that the respondent, Ajimi is still not remorseful over he did.
Ajimi was found guilty of raping a 19-year-old at a riverbank in Kg Menunggui, Kota Belud at 6.20pm on Feb 7, 2005.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Jamil Aripin submitted that the sentence was too light and that it does not reflect the gravity of the offence.
Jamil said the trial took three years to complete as Ajimi had jumped bail.
He told the court that Ajimi had represented himself as a bomoh then and initially treated the victim's mother and told her that her daughter (the victim) also has sickness and needed to be treated.
Jamil said Ajimi told the mother that in order to cure them, he (Ajimi) needed to bath the victim at the river.
Meanwhile, Ajimi, who was not represented, denied committing the offence and requested his sentence to be upheld, saying apart from the rape case he was also serving a jail sentence for burglary and expects to be released from prison in 2019.
In another case, the court struck out an appeal by a 30-year-old man against his sentence of eight years' jail for cutting off a man's arm with a machete in 2009.
Malanjum made the decision after Irwanshah Shadan of Semporna decided to withdraw his appeal when his case was brought up for hearing before Malajum.
Irwanshah was on March 26, 2010 jailed eight years by the Sessions Court after he pleaded guilty to voluntarily causing grievous hurt to one Norman Majikan, 32, by slashing him with a machete until his right arm was severed.
He committed the offence at 9.30pm on Dec 24, 2009 at Kg Sembulan Baru here.
