GISB: Eight individuals charged in court, religious teacher jailed 10 years for abusing three boys

KUALA LUMPUR: Eight individuals have been charged in courts in three states with threatening, abusing and physically sexually assaulting children since the police launched Op Global, including raids at charity homes linked to GISB Holdings Sdn Bhd (GISB), early last month.

On Sept 12, a 19-year-old girl pleaded not guilty in the Seremban Sessions Court to four charges of abusing four girls, aged five and six years, by scalding them on their arms with a hot iron spoon at a shelter in Seremban last August.

On Sept 18, businessman Mohamad Riza Makar, 39, who is a GISB member, pleaded not guilty at the Putrajaya Magistrate's Court to a charge of threatening a 25-year-old woman at a parking lot in Precinct 4, on Sept 9.

The next day (Sept 19), three teaching assistants of a madrasah (religious school) in Kuala Pilah were charged in the Seremban Sessions Court, Negeri Sembilan, with 14 counts of physically sexually assaulting five children in 2022 and 2023.

Muhammad Habib Noh Mohd Zairi, 21, Muhammad Khunais Fathie Khabil, 20, and Ahmad Nadzful Izham Azizan, 22, pleaded not guilty to the charges, which were readout separately to them, before Judge Datin Surita Budin.

On Sept 20, another teaching assistant at a madrasah in Kuala Pilah, Muhammad Fawzun Azim Ismail, 20, pleaded not guilty at the Seremban Sessions Court to six charges of physical sexual assault on four boys aged 12 and 13, at the madrasah last year.

Meanwhile, on Sept 26, the Klang Sessions Court sentenced a religious teacher, Muhammad Barur Rahim Hisam, 23, to 10 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to abusing three boys by whipping them with a cane and pressing his knee on the chest of one of the victims at two schools linked to GISB.

He was also ordered to be placed on a good behavior bond for five years with a surety of RM10,000, in default six months in jail.

Today (Oct 4), a caretaker of a charity home linked to GISB, Mohd Syahid Hanapiah, 35, pleaded not guilty in the Selayang Sessions Court to a charge of abusing a six-year-old boy by caning the victim at a charity home in Bandar Country Homes, Rawang.

Previously, the media reported that the police launched Op Global early last month and had raided charity homes linked to GISB in the peninsula because they were suspected of being involved in the exploitation of children and religion.

A total of 572 victims were rescued, and 359 GISB followers including the top management of the company were arrested.

-- BERNAMA

Read the latest news here