Govt maintains marital rape not criminal

KUALA LUMPUR: A parliamentary committee decided a decade ago after a study that it is permissible for a husband to "rape" his wife.

This position was taken by the six-member bi-partisan speacial committee set up to review marital rape laws when amendments to the Penal Code were being considered between 2004 and 2006.

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Nancy Shukri (pic) said the Government decided to maintain the present rape laws and not include marital rape.

"The provision with regard to Section 375 that intercourse between a legally married couple continues to remain in force and cannot be considered as rape.

"To date, there are no proposals to amend this," she said in a written reply to a question from Ramkarpal Singh in Parliament.

Nancy noted that it was an offence if a husband injures his wife with the intention of having sexual intercourse.

The crime, she said, was punishable under Section 375A as of Sept 7 2007 and carries a jail term not exceeding five years.

On a separate issue, Nancy said 2,878 interim protection orders were issued by the Magistrates Court out of the 3,151 applications made nationwide between 2010 and April 30 this year.

She said Selangor recorded the highest number of applications totaling 963 for the same period with 721 orders issued, followed by Malacca with 486 orders and Kuala Lumpur 297.

She added that Terengganu had the lowest with only three orders followed by Perlis with 26 and Sabah with 21.

Nancy said this in her written reply to a question by Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said.