SHAH ALAM - The crowdfunding campaign to raise funds for a TikTok user known as "Abang Bas", who was arrested for posting videos of his passengers, believed to be primary school students, has successfully reached its target amount today.
The sister of the 24-year-old school bus driver, Zarina Sari, who initiated the crowdfunding campaign expressed gratitude to those who contributed to the fund.
"Alhamdulillah, the mission to help Abang Bas has been achieved. The collection of donations to help him is now closed.
"Thank you to generous netizens from 1Malaysia, Sabah, Sarawak, Singapore, Indonesia and Myanmar who contributed and helped.
"May your charitable donations be rewarded with the greatest blessings, both in this world and hereafter," she wrote in a Facebook post.
Zarina added that she would be updating about her brother's trial from time to time.
She also apologised on behalf of the family if there had been any misunderstandings, doubts or discomfort caused throughout the case.
"We hope that you will continue to pray for Abang Bas' acquittal and that he would be able to resume his life as before," she said.
However, Zarina did not disclose the final amount collected from the crowdfunding campaign.
The attempt to collect funds from the public to pay the bail for the man stirred debate and dissatisfaction among social media users as his offences involved minors.
Some social media users questioned why the public would help an offender who had put children at risk, while others were supportive of the idea based on the pretext that the bus driver was innocent and had done nothing wrong.
The man, who allegedly uploaded vidoes of children in the bus he was driving and referred to them as his "crush" and "favourite" was first hauled to the Muar Sessions Court in Johor on Sept 10.
He was charged with two counts of committing sexual assault.
On the first charge, he was accused of sexual assault by kissing the cheek of a four-year-old girl, who is also his niece, between 5pm and 6pm in a school bus at Simpang Renggam, Kluang, between April and September.
He was charged under Section 14(a) of the Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017, punishable with imprisonment for not more than 20 years and whipping upon conviction.
On the second charge, he was accused of constantly watching a nine-year-old girl for sexual purposes between 5pm and 6pm at the same location this month.
The charge was framed under Section 15(a)(iii) of the same Act, punishable with imprisonment for up to 10 years or a fine not more than RM20,000, or both, if convicted.
The court allowed him RM30,000 bail with one surety for both the charges.
Yesterday, he was charged again in the Sessions Court, this time for allegedly using his TikTok account under the name Abang Bas to knowingly make and send an offensive comment in a video involving a nine-year-old girl, captioned "hari ini crush buat homework" followed by a "love" emoji as he watched her.
He was charged under Section 233(1)(a) of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 (Act 588), which is punishable under Section 233(3) of the same Act.
If convicted, he could face a fine of up to RM50,000 or imprisonment for up to one year, or both, and an additional fine of RM1,000 for each day the offence continues after conviction.
He was allowed RM10,000 bail for the charge.
He pleaded not guilty to all the charges and his cases will be up for mention on Oct 10.