-
- Datuk Fatimah Abdullah
KUCHING: The Sarawak government is urged to emulate the Sabah government’s move to bar convicted serial rapist Selva Kumar Subbiah from entering the state.
In making the call, Minister of Welfare, Women and Community Wellbeing Datuk Fatimah Abdullah said the state government should ban Selva Kumar to protect women and children in the state.
“There is no way for us to identify him. If he were allowed into the state, how are we going to protect our people? With his records, I believe we should ban him as one of the ways to protect our women and children,” she said when contacted yesterday.
The Sabah government has barred Selva Kumar from entering Sabah as he is considered a high-risk individual.
“We just cannot take the risk of having such a potentially dangerous individual on the loose. We must protect our citizens,” Datuk Seri Musa Aman said, adding that the directive to the State Immigration Department was to be enforced immediately.
Selva Kumar, who is also suspected of sexually assaulting some 1,000 women, returned to Malaysia yesterday after serving 24-year jail in Toronto, Canada.
In 1992, Selva Kumar was convicted of 19 counts of sexual assault, 28 counts of administering drugs or noxious substances, 10 counts of various assaults and a dozen other charges.
He arrived at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) after being deported from Canada on Qatar Airways flight QR844 at 7.30am yesterday.
Bukit Aman officials from the Sexual Crime unit whisked him to the airport’s Immigration Operations Centre to have his statement recorded, before he was escorted out of the terminal.
His case is considered one of the worst serial sexual assault cases in Canadian history.
On Jan 30, Selva Kumar was ordered to be deported to Malaysia by the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada.
Echoing Fatimah’s call for the state to exercise its right under the Immigration Act to ban Selva Kumar from entering the state was PKR Women national vice-president Voon Shiak Ni.
“We are aware that any offender who had served time in jail (should) be given respect and a chance to repent and be a good citizen. But Selva Kumar has committed massive rapes and sexual abuses and it is not a case of one or two offences.
“We should be reminded that one rape is a rape too many. Are we going to put our girls and women at risk (by allowing him to enter the state?) And taking note that most of the victims are known to be school girls and some as young as 14 years old.”
Voon said the public could not accept him as any ordinary offender and allow him to roam freely on the streets as he had been publicly declared “a danger to the public” and also described as the “scariest psychopath”.
“According to Andrew Laut, who chaired the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, he was denied a refugee status because he was declared as ‘a danger to the public’.
“Therefore, we do not see any point of letting Selva Kumar into Sarawak.”
Voon therefore called on Chief Minister Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg to ban Selva Kumar from entering Sarawak, as he could potentially be a threat to the security of Sarawakians.
Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Datuk Amar Dr James Masing said he would advise the Chief Minister to ban the entry of Selva Kumar.
Masing said the state government has the authority to do so.
“He is not welcome here even though he has served his sentence. We don’t want a known serial rapist to be in our midst.
“We have banned people who have committed much lesser offence from entering, why should we not ban him?
“I will meet up with the Chief Minister and advise him to ban the entry of this known serial rapist since he has been deemed ‘a danger to the public’ by Canada which has deported him.
“What is worse is that, he is said to be likely to commit crime again,” Masing, who is also Infrastructure Development and Transportation Minister, told The Borneo Post yesterday.