IPOH: A total of 36 suspected members of a notorious secret society were recently arrested, crippling the group known as Gang 04, Malaysian police said on Monday (Feb 19) .
The nationwide operation dubbed Op Cantas Silver began on Jan 27 and involved suspected members aged between 20 and 60, including one holding the honorific title of Datuk.
Twenty-six were picked up in Perak, Selangor, Malacca and Johor, while the rest were rounded up in Pokok Sena, Kedah, Taiping and Batu Gajah in Perak, as well as Sungai Udang, Melaka.
Perak police chief Hasnan Hassan said the operation was mounted following a series of violent incidents including the murder of a woman with the honorific title of Datin Seri.
The murder occurred in front of a restaurant in Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur on Jul 6, 2016. In another case, a man was killed utan Melintang, Bagan Datuk in Perak in November 2016.
"The long-running secret society had been involved in organised crime and other criminal activities involving robbery, extortion, arson and drug trafficking," Perak's police chief told a press conference at the state police contingent headquarters in Ipoh on Monday.
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He said Bukit Aman's Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA) crime investigation team also froze and seized assets belonging to the group worth RM4.5 million, which covered vehicles, property, jewellery, valuable items, bank accounts and cash.
"The police are in the midst of tracking down 10 members of the group who have fled. Interpol assistance will be sought if the suspects go into hiding abroad," he added.
According to Hasnan, all the suspects were remanded for 28 days from Jan 27 under Section 4 (5) of the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (SOSMA).
The case was also investigated under Section 4 (1) of the Anti Money Laundering Act, Anti Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001 (AMLATFPUAA) 2001.
Hasnan said the 36 suspects would be charged at the Ipoh Sessions Court on Tuesday under Section 130 V of the Penal Code and Section 130 W of the Penal Code for being members of the group and assisting an organised crime group.
SINGAPORE: A 59-year-old rope skipping coach was convicted on Tuesday (Feb 20) of raping his 13-year-old student at his Tampines home in 2008 and 2009.
Roger Yue Jr, then the president of Rope Skipping Singapore, was also convicted of sexually assaulting the teenager on multiple occasions. He used the handle of a skipping rope and a vibrator on the girl, and made her perform oral sex on him.
Yue was convicted of seven charges – two of rape and five of sexual penetration of a minor – after a seven-day trial, at which the victim, now 22, testified against him.
Yue had sexually abused the girl for two years, from 2008 until 2010, though she waited five years to report the abuse to the police. This years-long delay “gave me some pause", Justice Aedit Abdullah said.
“I accept that victims of sexual assault or abuse may not behave in a stereotypical way,” Justice Aedit said. "The thinking process … of a juvenile victim may lead to a course of action that may appear unreasonable … (but) the court must be mindful (of this) and should not measure a child by adult standards," he added.
However, the delayed reporting of the office could have "robbed the victim of the strength of the support that is to be obtained from early reporting", Justice Aedit said, as early reports “give strong support to the case against an accused person".
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In this case, the teenager’s evidence alone was not sufficient to convict Yue, Justice Aedit said.
It was Yue’s own statement to a psychiatrist that did him in. Yue had told a psychiatrist that he considered himself to be in a relationship with the teenager and that it was in this context that he committed the sexual acts.
"Taken together with the victim’s testimony, there was sufficient evidence (to convict Yue)," Justice Aedit said. Whether the teenager consented to the sexual acts is "irrelevant" because she was a juvenile victim, he added.
"I accept the (victim’s) evidence that the sexual acts were committed through what was at least cajoling, if not pressure, by (Yue)," Justice Aedit said.
Yue is on bail of S$70,000 pending a sentencing hearing on Mar 21.
He faces up to 20 years' jail for each charge of rape or sexual penetration of a minor under 16. As he is above 50, he cannot be caned.
Another 41 charges against Yue – all involving the same victim – will be dealt with at a later date.
These include more than 20 charges for sexual penetration of a minor and more than 10 charges under the Children and Young Persons Act for committing indecent acts with a child.
In addition to allegedly sexually assaulting the girl in public, including at a public carpark at Tampines, an abandoned building along Lavender Street, the pagoda at Chinese Garden and in the bushes outside Bedok MRT station, Yue is also accused of taking photographs of her in the nude.
On one occasion in 2008 at Lakeside MRT station, Yue allegedly told the girl to change into a tight-fitting dress and to remove her bra and panties.
SINGAPORE: Approximately 685,000 user profiles were affected when the HardwareZone (HWZ) Forum website was hit by a security breach, the site's owner SPH Magazines said in a news release on Tuesday (Feb 20).
A suspicious post on Sunday prompted an investigation to ascertain whether a security breach had occurred, the news release said.
The probe showed that a senior moderator’s account had been compromised by an unidentified hacker, and used to access the user profiles since September 2017.
"The hacker used the compromised credentials to impersonate the senior moderator to retrieve user profile data which comprised name, email address and user ID, and possible optional data fields," said SPH Magazines.
It added that the database of the online tech portal did not contain NRIC numbers, telephone numbers and addresses as these had been purged in line with the Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC) guidelines in July 2015.
As a matter of precaution, forum users were advised to change their forum account password, SPH Magazines said, adding that it has also engaged security consultants to conduct "a thorough review of the system".
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A police report has been lodged and PDPC has been informed, SPH Magazines said.
"SPH Magazines and HWZ sincerely apologise to HWZ users for this breach of security. We remain committed to protecting all personal data shared with us," the release added.
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