Malaysian couple charged in Sweden

PETALING JAYA: The Malaysian couple in Sweden who were alleged to have hit their child has been charged in a Stockholm court.

Swedish media reports said that Azizul Raheem Awalludin and his wife Shalwati Nurshal were charged yesterday with assault and “gross violation of their children’s integrity”.

“In my judgment, the children’s information, given in a video testimony with the police, is credible,” Radio Sweden quoted district prosecutor Anna Arnell as saying.

“Along with other supportive evidence, like witnesses and items confiscated from the home, there is good support for the indictment,” Arnell added.

The report said that the offences allegedly took place in the family’s home in Spånga, a Stockholm suburb, between September 2012 and December 2013.

Shalwati and her husband were arrested on Dec 20 last year after one of their children told staff at his school that he had been hit.

The staff then reported the matter to the authorities.

Sweden has tough laws against corporal punishment with offenders liable to face imprisonment of up to six years if convicted on the charge of gross violation of a child’s integrity.

Meanwhile, English language news website The Local quoted Shalwati’s lawyer Kristofer Stahre as saying that his client was relieved that the prosecutor had finally brought charges, as she would now be able to prove her innocence.

“She has been waiting a long time for this; it’s been a tough time for her in jail but now she is seeing the light at the end of the tunnel,” said Stahre.

“It’s difficult to speculate what will happen but of course I hope my client will be freed. She hasn’t done any of the things of which she’s been accused of,” he added.

The news reports said that the trial is set to begin next Tuesday and that it was expected to last 10 days.

Stahre and Malaysian Embassy officials in the Swedish capital could not be reached for comment.