Nigerian Woman Arrested Under Immigration Laws After Lodging A Report About Her Gang Rape

The woman sells wigs and doesn't have valid travel documents to be in the country.

According to Kuala Lumpur (KL) police chief Mazlan Lazim, the Nigerian national had initially lodged a report on 4 June about being beaten up by a group of men in Cheras the same day.

Based on which, Mazlan stated, police arrested three men and a Thai woman.

"The three men were investigated under Section 324 of the Penal Code for voluntarily causing hurt and were remanded until 9 June," he said in a statement on Wednesday, 24 June.

Mazlan said that the men were released on police bail after the application to continue their remand was rejected. However, the Thai woman was remanded for 14 days until 18 June.

The statement from the police chief came amidst a week-long social media pressure and a Change.org petition that demanded justice for the woman, identified by her first name, Nicole.

The petition alleges that Nicole was raped by multiple men at a hotel in Changkat on 4 June.

Allegedly, Nicole had accepted an invitation of a man who asked her out and she followed him to the hotel, which, the petition alleges, is one of the many owned by the man's father.

At the hotel, the man and his friends assaulted the woman and then allegedly forced themselves on her. Following which, they took her to another location, where two other men gang-raped her.

According to the petition, which was launched on 19 June, the men then took photos and videos of the victim naked and threatened to post them on social media if she told anyone about what had happened.

Nicole was able to escape after another woman, who was inside the house in Cheras, helped her out, the petition claims, adding that she then approached the security at the apartment and asked for help.

She was then taken to the police station where she lodged a report about her rape. Following which, the police arrested four Chinese men and locked them up for five days, the petition alleges.

However, as previously stated above, Mazlan said that they arrested three men and a woman from the house in Cheras after Nicole lodged a report about being beaten up by them.

The petition, which has attracted widespread attention on social media, then alleges that police "released them on bail due to the father of one of the Chinese boys" being an influential man.

In the end, calling attention towards the case, the people behind the petition say they are worried that the authorities will likely deport Nicole after some time and "cover up the injustice done to her".

According to Mazlan, after the victim lodged the report about being beaten up on 4 June, they warded her to Hospital Kuala Lumpur (HKL) where she was treated for three days for her injuries.

On 9 June, she told police that she was raped by the men and that she had chosen not to pursue the matter. However, she decided to lodge a second report about the rape on the advice of the investigators.

"Initially, she did not want to make an issue of the rape case and was reluctant to have a medical evaluation at the hospital," Mazlan said adding she lodged the report after she was advised to do so by police.

Following which, on 20 June, police arrested a 44-year-old man after he came to the city police headquarters. He was remanded for six days, which ended on Friday, 26 June.

According to Mazlan's 24 June statement, the case is being investigated under Section 376 of the Penal Code for rape and that police are looking for three other men for further investigations.

Mazlan said she was arrested for not having a valid visa.

She was remanded for 14 days from 10 June to 23 June and is now at the Kajang Prison, where she will be held until the rape case investigations are completed, Mazlan stated.

As of this SAYS story on 27 June, authorities haven't revealed any further details about the case.