How many of you remember the case of the MCO roadblock incident that happened in April last year?

A PDRM officer used his power to force 2 Mongolian women, who weren't carrying papers, to a hotel in PJ, where he allegedly raped them.

Do you know what happened?

I'll tell you.

A couple of weeks after the incident, Hazrul Hizham Ghazali, who is no longer a cop, was charged with 8 counts of rape and an attempt to molest the two women.

He denied all the charges against him and was granted bail.

He also faces charges for abuse of power, etc.

The PJ Sessions Court kept giving dates for re-mention of his case, first in June, then moving to July.

What happens after that is something that's been living in my head rent free.

His case is goes 'silent'.

One of the Mongolian victims returns to her country in December.

It turns out, the High Court in December had struck out her civil suit against the former inspector as she could not deposit a RM70,000 payment for security for costs.

The judge also ordered the woman to pay the RM6,500 as costs to Hazrul.

What?! Yep!

Late last month, I received a statement from law firm Thomas Philip, who are representing one of the victims, Nandine-Erdene Khoskhulug, saying they are crowdfunding to raise RM46,500 to help her re-file her civil suit against the former cop.

She managed to raise the funds.

According to a Reuters news report, this is a first of its kind of case in Malaysia where a woman had to crowdfund to mount a sexual assault case against her alleged rapist and have her day in court.

She's seeking unspecified damages for alleged sexual assault and unlawful detention.

Her law firm, in their follow up statement, said they are reviewing and weighing the options.

They will either have the case reinstated in the High Court through an appeal process or re-file it in the High Court and pay the costs of previous proceedings.

Presently, they are awaiting a pending decision before the High Court on the matter of security of costs for their other client, another alleged victim of the former inspector.

The decision for it is due on 3 March this year, the law firm said.

Meanwhile, Hazrul's criminal trial, for the multiple counts of rape and outrage of modesty, has been scheduled in the Klang Criminal Sessions Court for April and May this year.

That's all the details about this case I've for now.

Anyway, it's been almost a year since that alleged case of abuse of power by a cop and we are still here, arguing and defending how an unsolicited text or a call from men in uniform is not that harmful.

We are still here, debating if the women in latest MCO roadblocks cases should have taken note of what they were wearing or if they are beautiful enough to be harassed.

We are still here being shameless about our collective ignorance.

We are still here, sending out tone-deaf tweets because apparently it is too hard to comprehend how power without an independent oversight committee corrupts anyone who wields it.

Case after case, we fail to realise this because we don't want to accept the hard truth about it.

Also, I see some of you saying "spill the tea" while replying to this. It ain't tea!

News reports and tweets detailing sexual assault and harassment are not, in any sense of the word, tea. So please stop!

If you are confused, this is tea:

PS: If you're interested, you can contribute to the victim's crowdfunding efforts here.

So far, they have raised RM55,700+ of the pledged RM46,500.
https://www.reward.pitchin.my/projects/help-mongolian-rape-victim-get-justice-in-malaysia