'No one dares to discriminate against the disabled anymore'
KUALA LUMPUR - No one will dare to dscriminate against the disabled anymore, especially children who are unable to stand up for themselves, said OKU Sentral president Datuk Ras Adiba Radzi.
Ras Adiba who is also a Senator, thanked the court for upholding justice and listening to the arguments well.
She said justice in favor of Bella is a win for all disabled persons in this country who had been discriminated against and mistreated.
"After this, the community will be our eyes and ears so that the disabled would not be abused like Bella.
"This will go down in history, of a person who had abused a disabled person and was brought to court and sentenced accordingly," she said in a press conference at Jalan Duta Court Complex, here, today.
The former television personality also thanked the lawyers and the #justiceforbella team who had sacrificed a lot of their time to fight in court until justice was served.
"Thank you also to Tunku Mahkota Johor (TMJ) Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim and his wife Che Puan Besar Khaleeda Bustamam for believing in the mission of the #justiceforbella team.
"This is not the end but the beginning because I will continue to fight for the voice of the disabled people to ensure that we are not discriminated.
"For the government agencies involved, this is not an easy lesson to learn but needed to ensure history does not repeat itself," she stressed.
She also appealed to the public to always be ready to report to the authorities if they know or heard about any cases of abuse and discrimination against the disabled.
"If we are not their eyes and ears, who else is because most of us are not able to voice out what is happening to us because we are stressed by the situation around us," she said.
Today, the founder of Rumah Bonda Siti Bainun Ahd Razali was sentenced to 22 years in prison on two charges of neglecting and abusing a Down syndrome teenager known as Bella, two years ago.
Sessions Court Judge Izralizam Sanusi ruled this after finding that Siti Bainun failed to raise reasonable doubt at the end of the defense case.
For the first offense of neglecting Bella, she was sentenced to 10 years in prison, while the second charge, which is mistreatment amounted to 12 years.
