KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia police have publicly said they believe the three police officers accused of raping an Indonesian woman should be officially charged with the crime. The announcement has left many Indonesian women living in Malaysia confident that justice will be done. “I believe the police and prosecution will do what they can do give justice in this horrific attack on the woman,” said Sohar, a 22-year-old university student in the capital. Penang police chief Abdul Rahim Hanafi said investigations were 95 percent complete, with 10 statements having been taken from the three during interrogations. “We are remanding them until Friday and will be forwarding the investigation papers to the deputy public prosecutor's office to charge them with rape,” he said, adding that the trio's salaries would be withheld. They could continue to be behind bars if the case goes to court. The 25-year-old woman said that the three officers had picked her up late Friday evening after she did not show them her original passport, only a photocopy while riding in a taxi with another female friend, who had been dropped off shortly before the incident occurred. At the police station, she was told that she would be arrested and placed in the lockup. “She begged for them to release her and they asked her what she could give them to secure her release," said Bukit Mertajam Barisan Nasional coordinator Lau Chiek Tuan who had assisted the restaurant worker and called a press conference on Saturday to reveal details of the case. He said the woman had offered to pay the four policemen a “present" at the police station at that time but they laughed off her offer. “They asked her how many thousands she had with her to pay them and when she said she has nothing else but her body, three of them took her to a room at the station," he said. He claimed that the three policemen took turns raping the woman on a mattress in the room before they dropped her off at her home in Taman Inderawasih. She was also warned not to tell anyone about the incident. “She came to us for help at around 2pm on Friday and we took her to the Bukit Mertajam police station to lodge a police report," he said. Malaysia women have repeatedly told Bikyamasr.com that they fear for their safety late at night an in dark spaces. For foreign women, especially Indonesians, often seen as second-class citizens in the country, sexual violence has increased in recent years.
