Remand for trio in assault case

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The stepfather of the girl walks out of the court after the police applied to remand him.

The stepfather of the girl walks out of the court after the police applied to remand him.

The teenage girl (right) and her mother.

The teenage girl (right) and her mother.

SIBU: The police here yesterday morning obtained a four-day remand for the three persons allegedly involved in the assault and humiliation of two youths at a shopping mall in Kuching.

They will be investigated under Section 147 of the Penal Code for rioting.

They were arrested at a house in Rejang Park about 9pm on Monday.

Sibu deputy police chief Supt Martin Koo identified the three as an 18-year-old girl, her mother aged 50 and her stepfather aged 45.

The arrest came after the police in Kuching opened an investigation file following the posting of video clips of the assault and public humiliation of the two youths in Facebook that went viral.

In the video, the two smartly dressed youths were seen kneeling in front of a group of assailants, who shouted, slapped, kicked and punched them in the mall.

“After the remand, the three will be escorted to Kuching. A team of policemen has arrived from Kuching,” Koo said.

The case has become a hot topic in town since yesterday as the suspects were from here.

It is said the teenage girl and the two youths were from Sibu.

Believed to be friends, the girl is jobless while the two youths are working in Kuching.

There is a claim that the girl was unhappy in Kuching after she was allegedly bullied by the two, which prompted her to call her stepfather, who then called in a group of friends to “teach the two youths a lesson” in the mall.

A source said apart from the three, two persons were arrested in Kuching after they surrendered themselves to the police about midnight on Monday.