Kuala Lumpur, Aug 6 (DPA) A Malaysian man who forced his wife to have sex with him has been sentenced to five years’ jail under a newly enacted law aimed at protecting women from spousal abuse in the form of marital rape, a news report said Thursday.
The 35-year-old man had pleaded guilty to injuring his wife during sexual intercourse in their home in the eastern state of Pahang in April.
His wife, who lodged the police report, told the court that her husband had been using violence during sex for all of the nine years that they have been married.
“We commend the wife for having the courage to sacrifice her family’s good name by coming forward and lodging a police report against the husband after the last episode,” Judge Hassan Abdul Ghani was quoted as saying by the New Straits Times.
“Even though it was a shameful and personal thing to admit, she did it in the hope that her husband would change.
“We hope this will inspire other wives who suffer in silence to come out and seek justice for themselves,” he said.
This is believed to be the first case under a new provision in Malaysian family law introduced in 2007, making it an offence for husbands to hurt their wives or put her in fear of death in order to have sexual intercourse.
The law prescribes a maximum sentence of five years for those found guilty.
The man was also sentenced to 10 years in jail and three lashes of the whip for forcing his wife to have anal sex, which is a crime punishable by up to 20 years imprisonment in Malaysia even if it is consensual.
Both sentences are to be carried out concurrently, the report said.
