Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim or Women, Family, and Community Development Minister Nancy Shukri must now intervene to halt any attempt to penalise underage girls in statutory rape cases, said Lawyers for Liberty (LFL) today.

In a statement, the NGO’s co-founder Latheefa Koya also called on the cabinet as a whole to react to the matter, and panned Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail’s reaction to Kelantan police chief Yusoff Mamat’s remark, which she labelled as “shocking” and “defensive”.

Earlier today, Saifuddin described Yusoff’s statement...