A SINGAPORE High Court has exonerated a woman who was charged with sexual penetration of a minor in an unexpected ruling which found that only a man can be declared guilty for such an offense.
The Straits Times reported Senior Judge Kan Ting Chiu’s unprecedented decision in the bizarre case involving 39-year-old Zunika Ahmad, a transgender individual who was born female but is living as a man.
Zunika had also previously married two women by using a fabricated identity of an Indonesian man.
According to the paper, Zunika pleaded guilty last December to six counts of sexual penetration and one count of sexual exploitation under the Children and Young Persons Act.
Zunika admitted she performed the sexual acts on an underage girl between 13 and 14 years old with an external paraphernalia. The victim had reportedly lived in Zunika’s neighborhood.
The judge said doubt was raised as to whether a woman could be charged under Section 376A(1)(b), adding the “better course” was to leave it to legislation to amend the provision to make it clear that it includes a woman.
In the provision: “any person (A) who sexually penetrates, with a part of A’s body (other than A’s penis) or anything else,” a person under the age of 16 is guilty of an offence.
Directed to argue the issue, the prosecution and defense concluded a woman could be charged under the provision but the judge disagreed, saying A could not have been a woman.
“The reference to a person who has a penis cannot be construed to include a woman without doing violence to common sense and anatomy,” he said, rejecting the guilty plea on the six counts.
However, Zunika was jailed for eight months on the remaining charge of sexual exploitation and will start her sentence in six weeks. She had been diagnosed with gender dysphoria.
Her lawyer, N. Sudha Nair, said Zunika was sorry for committing the offense and would have gender reassignment surgery upon release from prison.
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