Widower in T'ganu to be caned in public after three strikes

A 42-year-old widower will be the first offender to be caned in public at a mosque in Terengganu after being caught three times for close proximity with a woman.

Terengganu Syariah High Court judge Kamalruazmi Ismail made the ruling after Mohd Affendi Awang pleaded guilty.

The offender would receive six strokes of the rotan after Friday prayers on Dec 6. The punishment would be carried out at the Al-Muktafi Billah Shah mosque in Kuala Terengganu.

The accused was charged under Section 31(a) of the Syariah Criminal Offences Enactment (Terengganu) Amendment 2022.

Affendi was also slapped with a RM4,000 fine, which if not paid, would land him in prison for six months.

Deterrent sentence

According to the charge, the accused was alleged to have committed khalwat (close proximity) with a 52-year-old woman in a house in Kemaman at 1.40am. on June 16.

The punishment was imposed as this was the accused’s third offence.

Under the Syariah Criminal Offences (Takzir) (Amendment) Enactment 2022 of Terengganu, a second or subsequent khalwat offence can result in up to six strokes of the cane, a fine of up to RM5,000, or three years imprisonment, effective from Jan 1.

Deputy chief syariah prosecutor Nik Mohd Shahril Irwan Mat Yusof prosecutor, while the accused was unrepresented.

In delivering the sentence, Kamalruazmi stated that the primary goal of punishment in Islamic law is to provide a lesson, education, and deterrence so that similar acts are not repeated, particularly by the accused, and also to serve as a preventive reminder to the public.

“A believer does not fall into the same hole twice. You (the accused) have been caned and imprisoned before, yet you did it again (khalwat).

“The first punishment (caning for khalwat) should have already taught you a lesson,” he said, as quoted by Sinar Harian Online.

The accused, a house builder and father of five had previously been fined RM2,700 or sentenced to three months’ imprisonment after pleading guilty to a khalwat charge on July 11, 2023, at the Kemaman Lower Syariah Court.

He was once again charged with the same offence on Jan 25, before the Terengganu Syariah High Court sentenced him on Feb 19 to four strokes of the cane, a fine of RM3,000, or six months imprisonment if he failed to pay the fine.

According to the report, he was the first repeat khalwat offender in Terengganu to receive four strokes of the cane under the Terengganu Syariah High Court for repeated offences.

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