PU Azman’s lawyers want sexual assault charges reviewed

SEREMBAN: The defence team representing celebrity preacher Azman Syah Alias who is facing five counts of committing physical sexual assault against two teenage boys, will submit a representation to the Attorney General’s Chambers to review the charges.

Lawyer Mohamad Zahid Ahmad told the Sessions Court here that the defence would need time to peruse the documents related to the case before making the representation.“We received the documents from the prosecution today (yesterday). We hope the court can give us time to go through them before we make our representation.

“We hope the charges would be reviewed once we submit our representation to the prosecution,” he said.

Sessions Court judge Surita Budin allowed the request and fixed Jan 31 to hear the case.

Deputy public prosecutor Hafizah Zainul Hashimi had earlier told the court that all the relevant documents pertaining to the case were ready.

Surita said the court would fix the trial dates after hearing the representation from the defence.

On Oct 12, the 41-year-old Azman, who is popularly known as PU Azman, claimed trial to the charges.

For the first three charges, he is accused of committing the offence against a 17-year-old boy at a house in Taman Tiara Sendayan near here. The offences were allegedly committed between 3am and 5am on July 6.

For the other two charges, he is said to have committed the same offence against a boy aged 16 years and 10 months on the same day and between 8.30pm and midnight on Feb 5.

The alleged assaults were committed in the same house.

He was charged under Section 14 (a) of the Sexual Offences Against Children Act which provides for imprisonment not exceeding 20 years and whipping, upon conviction.

He has been out on a RM40,000 bail since.

Azman Syah was also ordered to stay away from the witnesses and victims and to surrender his passport to the court.

He was told to report to the nearest police station every month.

At the Klang Sessions and Magistrate’s courts on Wednesday, he claimed trial to four charges of sexually assaulting three other teenage boys.

He was released on a total bail of RM24,000.