A Singapore court sentenced an Indonesian man to 15 months in jail and caning on June 3 after he admitted molesting a 17 year old Thai girl during a flight from Okinawa to Singapore on April 15.
The suspect, 20 year old Ariel Lhudfiyan Muarifin pleaded guilty to outrage of modesty after the incident on a flight.
The court heard that Ariel, an Indonesian construction worker based in Okinawa, was travelling back to Indonesia and using Singapore as a transit point. The Thai girl, who lives in Thailand, was also travelling home through Singapore and was seated beside him.
During the flight, Ariel reportedly molested the girl while she was asleep. She tried to move away, but he continued. She then left her seat to alert cabin crew, who moved her to another seat in a safer area of the aircraft.
After the plane landed in Singapore, the airline reported the matter to police, and Ariel was arrested on the same day.
Prosecutors sought a jail term of 14 to 16 months and three to five strokes of the cane, a form of corporal punishment in Singapore. Prosecutors argued that Ariel exploited the confined seating arrangement on the aircraft to commit the offence.
Ariel appealed for leniency through an interpreter, but was sentenced to 15 months in jail and three strokes of the cane.
The Straits Times reported that under Singapore law, outrage of modesty carries a maximum sentence of three years in jail, a fine, caning, or a combination of those penalties.
In similar news, the lawyer of a Swedish man arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a member of the cabin crew on a Bangkok to Mumbai flight claims he has mental health problems and did not mean to touch the woman.
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