The first Singaporean to be charged under the new Prevention of Human Trafficking Act (PHTA) now faces 18 charges for recruiting prostitutes, including minors, having sex with a minor and paying for sex with a minor.
Muhammad Khairulanwar Rohmat was yesterday slapped with 16 charges following police investigations. He has been in remand since he was first charged last week with one count of recruiting a child for exploitation, and for having sex with the girl, who is 15 years old.
Today (April 29), Khairulanwar was charged with recruiting another 16-year-old for the purpose of sexual exploitation. He is said to have done so at Cuppage Terrace on March 15.
Khairulanwar also faces charges for soliciting customers who paid him for sexual services by minors.
He is accused of being paid S$350 and S$450 on two separate occasions between March and April this year, in exchange for arranging for customers to have sex with minors.
He is also accused of paying S$70 to a minor to have sex with him in a male toilet on March 27, and faces another charge for having sex with a minor on April 13.
Five of the charges Khairulanwar faces are for living on the earnings of prostitutes between February 2013 and April this year, while he also faces six charges for procuring women for the purpose of prostitution.
Both crimes could earn him jail sentences of up to five years, with fines up to S$10,000.
The PHTA was passed in Parliament last November and implemented in March. It serves to deter human trafficking, including the sexual exploitation of individuals.
The Act states that any person who recruits, transports, transfers, harbours or receives an individual by means of threat, force or coercion, abduction, deception, abuse of vulnerability, or using money or any other benefit will be found guilty of trafficking.
For receiving payment for trafficking individuals, a convicted person can be jailed up to 10 years, fined up to S$100,000 and receive up to six strokes of the cane.
A harsher sentence will be imposed if he is discovered to have committed the offence more than once.
The maximum sentence for sex with a minor is up to 10 years in jail, or a fine, or both, while the maximum punishment for paying for sex with a minor is up to seven years in jail, or a fine, or both.
Khairulanwar’s case will be mentioned in court again on May 20.
Source: www.todayonline.com
