MUAR: A teacher was charged in the Sessions Court here today with five counts of committing physical sexual offences against his students.
The accused, Mohd Fauzi Musa, 35, allegedly committed these acts against three of his male students in the library of a religious school in Tangkak in 2019 and 2020. He pleaded not guilty as all charges were read in front of Judge Abu Bakar Manat.
According to the first charge, the accused was alleged to have committed sexual abuse against a male student who was 10 years old at the time in the library at 4 pm on Jan 2.
For the second and third charges, the accused allegedly committed the same act against another male student, who was 11 years old, in Oct 2019 and Jan 2020.
As for the fourth and fifth charges, he again committed the same act against a different male student aged 11, between 3 and 4 pm from Nov 2019 to Jan 2, 2020, with all incidents occurring at the same location.
For all these charges, the accused is charged under Section 14(a) of the Sexual Offenses Against Children Act 2017, together with Section 16(1) of the same act, which carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison and caning.
Meanwhile, the punishment for Section 16 of the involved act allows the accused to be imprisoned for five years and may be subjected to caning not less than twice.
The prosecution was conducted by Deputy Public Prosecutor Danial Munir, while the accused was not represented by any lawyer.
Earlier, the prosecution requested the court not to grant bail to the accused as the offenses involved his students.
However, the accused requested the court to grant the lowest bail amount as he needs to take care of three children aged one to six.
After hearing the arguments from the prosecution and the accused's appeal, the court allowed bail in the amount of RM10,000 for all charges.
The court also set two conditions, namely that the accused must report to the Sungai Mati police station every month and must not contact or disturb the victims until the case is completed.
The case will be mentioned again on Jan 16 for the appointment of a lawyer and the submission of prosecution documents related to the charges.