Malaysia Crime Watch

4 February 2010
Muar

Three underaged suspects have pleaded not guilty in court for setting fire to two surau, or Muslim prayer centres, on 21 January 2010. One of them was also charged with lodging a false police report.

Magistrate Lydiana Mansor mentioned that the two 17-year-old and one 16-year-old suspects will be referred to Juvenile Court.

Under Section 436 of the Penal Code, all three were charged with causing mischief by fire with the intent to destroy Surau Silatulrahim along Jalan Ismail and Surau Parit Beting along Jalan Salleh between 12:30am and 1am and between 2am and 3:15am respectively.

One of them was charged under Section 182 of the Penal Code for providing false information to the police at the Muar police headquarters at 3:54am on the same day.

Deputy public prosecutor Umar Saifuddin Jaafar requested the court to set bail at RM20,000 each. Magistrate Lydiana set bail at RM20,000 each and an additional RM5,000 for the false report charge.

The youths face a maximum jail sentence of 20 years and a fine if convicted for the first offence, while the youth charged with making the false report faces an additional 6 months of jail time or a maximum fine of RM2,000 or both.

Their cases have been set for 6 April 2010 for mention.

The Star Online – Surau attacks: Three teens plead not guilty
<URL:http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/2/4/nation/20100204180005&sec=nation>

New Straits Times Online – Teenagers charged over surau fires
<URL:http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/articles/6ron/Article/index_html>

Technorati Tags: malaysia crime, malaysia, crime, muar, surau, arson, causing mischief with fire, false report, surau silatulrahim, surau parit beting