By : Dharshini Balan

SEREMBAN, MALAYSIA: The High Court yesterday freed a man sentenced to eight years' jail for rape because he had pleaded guilty to a faulty charge.

Judge Abdul Alim Abdullah granted Ahmad Syairi Irfan Abu Bakar, 24, a discharge not amounting to an acquittal on the grounds that the charge was baseless and inconsistent with the evidence of the complainant.

He was charged with three counts of raping a 12-year-old girl in 2006.

After he pleaded guilty, he was sentenced to eight years' jail on each count, the sentences to run concurrently.

The prosecution appealed for a heavier sentence while counsel Paari Perumal, appointed by the Legal Aid Bureau, urged the High Court to exercise its revisionary powers and set aside the conviction and sentence because the accused should not have been convicted as the charge was faulty.

(Section 173g states that a judge hearing a case can discharge an accused if he or she considers the charge to be groundless.)

Syairi was charged with raping the girl at 1am on Sept 13, 2006, 11pm on Sept 13, 2006, and 7am on Sept 14, 2006.

All offences were allegedly committed at a terrace house number 181, Jalan Desaria, Taman Desaria in Nilai.

Alim held that there were inconsistencies in the time the offences were allegedly committed and also in the medical reports and sworn statements of the victim.

In passing judgment, Alim told Syairi, who was crying in the dock, to repent and go back to religion.

Syairi had served two years at the Kajang Prison in Selangor from the date of his arrest on Sept 20, 2006.