GEORGE TOWN: A woman, who was arrested by police last month for falsely claiming that she was forced into prostitution to pay off her father's debt to a loan shark, was fined RM4,000 by the magistrate's court here today.
Magistrate Siti Nurul Suhaila Baharin fined Wan Ainsyatul Mime Wan Yuszaidi, 26, after she pleaded guilty to the offence.
"The court accepts your guilty plea. As such, you are sentenced to RM4,000 fine in default of nine months' jail," Siti Nurul Suhaila said.
The accused pleaded guilty to voluntarily making a false statement in a live programme. She committed the offence at the Ampang Jajar PPR flat about 3.30pm on July 26.
The charge was framed under Section 505(b) of the Penal Code. The offence carries a maximum of two years' imprisonment or a fine or both upon conviction.
Deputy public prosecutor Nurul Atikah Asharaf Ali prosecuted while the accused was represented by Naqieya Zulkernain from the National Legal Aid Foundation.
In mitigation, Naqieya told the court that her client was working as a security guard, earning RM1,600 a month. She said her client, a single mother, needed to care for her two children, aged 4 and 11 months and her aged mother.
"With a family to care for and a small salary, we plead to the court to impose a minimal fine. My client's guilty plea has also saved the court's time and cost.
"My client regrets her action and has promised not to repeat it," she said.
Nurul Atikah urged the court to take into account public interest and to impose a deterrent sentence. She said the accused's action, in using social media to make the false claim, had caused fear among the people.
"Her action would have led to a racial issue and affected the peace. As such, we urge the court to set a deterrent sentence to serve as a lesson to the accused, so that she will be more careful in future when using the social media platform," she added.
According to the facts of the case, Wan Ainsyatul Mime had called up the live programme to say that she was forced to work in a "red house" without a salary to repay her father's debt to a loan shark.
However, a police investigation later revealed that she had made a false claim. On Sept 30, Penang police said it was probing a claim by a woman that she was forced to be a prostitute to pay off her father's debt to an Ah Long. The woman had contacted a podcast handler during a live TikTok session.
She claimed her father owed RM20,000 to a loan shark and the failure to repay the debt led to her being forced to work without pay as a mistress for the Ah Long in Penang since February. The woman claimed her father had used her mother and other family members' details as guarantors.
She had reached out to the podcast handler for help to rescue her.
However, police investigations revealed that the woman had fabricated the story.