Lawyer hopes to get sexual offence laws reviewed

DUNGUN: Independent candidate for the Dungun parliamentary seat, lawyer Ghazali Ismail, wants to push for the Evidence Act 1950 to be reviewed and improved if elected.

He said he is taking a huge gamble in GE15 to try and win a seat in Parliament as he strongly feels that people charged with sexual crimes, especially obscenity cases, must be given a fair trial and protected from injustice.

The 49-year-old said the requirement of supporting evidence as per provisions under Section 133A of the Evidence Act 1950 should also be extended to obscenity crime cases.

He said supporting evidence in obscenity crime cases must be independent, and not just taken from the complainant’s testimony so that there is no victimisation of the accused.

“If it’s a rape case, there is clear evidence as such testimony is from a medical doctor, but for obscenity cases it is difficult as they are based on the complainant’s testimony,” he said.

Meanwhile, Pejuang’s Noraisah Hassan, 32, who is the sole female candidate in Terengganu, said she wants to empower more young women in the economic sector, mainly in entrepreneurship, if given the people’s mandate.

The Dungun candidate said her strong desire to bring reforms in the political arena drove her to contest in GE15.

“I decided to join Pejuang because it is something new and the people are aware that the established parties are riddled with problems,” she told Bernama.

Citing incumbent Wan Hassan Mohd Ramli of PAS as her biggest challenge, Noraisah said she is optimistic.

The Dungun seat will see a five-cornered battle. The other two candidates are Nurhisam Johari of Barisan Nasional and Datuk Dr Mohd Johari Mohamad of Pakatan Harapan.