KL Court Orders Sportswoman To Apologise To Disabled Senior Citizen For Assaulting Him
During the incident, the woman continued to assault him and ignored his plea.
By Sadho Ram — 10 Apr 2019, 01:52 PM
A 25-year-old national taekwondo sportswoman has been ordered to apologise publicly to a 71-year-old partially blind and deaf person for allegedly assaulting him at the Putra Heights LRT station
The order was made in chambers by the Kuala Lumpur Civil Sessions Court judge Lalilatul Zuraida Harron@Harun on Tuesday, 9 April, Bernama reported.
Taekwondo athlete Nur Dhia Liyana Shaharuddin has to submit a written apology to be published in print media within a month from 9 April for assaulting senior citizen Placid P. Rodriguez in the incident that happened two years ago on 6 July 2017.
Placid P Rodriguez leaving the Sessions Court yesterday, and Nur Dhia Liyana in the Court last year.
Image via MUHD ZAABA ZAKERIA/NSTP & theSundailyThe disabled senior citizen, Placid P. Rodriguez, has been fighting the case since he filed the suit against Nur Dhia Liyana Shaharuddin at the Kuala Lumpur High Court on 6 December 2017
According to lawyer Dr S. Arunan, who represented Placid P. Rodriguez, the suit did not have to come this far if athlete Nur Dhia Liyana had apologised earlier.
All he wanted was an apology.
"My client just wanted to clear his name as the woman filed a police report against him claiming she was assaulted when it was actually the other way around.
"But there was a CCTV camera and the footage showed the woman had attacked my client," the lawyer was quoted as saying by NST Online yesterday.
The lawsuit, according to Mr Rodriguez's lawyer, was filed not for the sake of money, but to seek justice for the senior citizen
On 6 July 2017 when Rodriguez was on his way back from work, he boarded the LRT train to Putra Heights, he said in the statement of claim.
According to the statement, upon reaching the station, he had allowed other passengers to go out first to avoid being pushed.
However, as he was stepping out of the train to the platform, athlete Nur Dhia pushed him and then he heard the woman scolding and shouting at him.
Rodriguez, who was wearing a hearing aid at the time, said he was later kicked by Nur Dhia four times on his chest and other parts of his body despite his repeated pleas to her to stop. He claimed that the woman continued to assault him and ignored his plea.
The athlete, who won a silver medal at the 2017 SEA Games, has been ordered to pay RM88 in special damages, RM1,000 in general damages and RM1,000 in legal costs to Rodriguez
Meanwhile, in August last year, a Magistrate's court in Petaling Jaya had given the athlete a discharge not amounting to an acquittal
Back then, Nur Dhiya Liyana was charged under Section 323 of the Penal Code, which carries a jail term of up to one year or a fine of up to RM2,000 upon conviction.