KUCHING: Police will file charges against paedophile Alladin Lanim with possessing thousands of child pornography material in his mobile phone.
Sarawak Police Commissioner Datuk Aidi Ismail said the charges would be proposed to the Deputy Public Prosecutor in the near future.
“On July 5, a police team successfully arrested Alladin for possessing thousands of child pornography in his mobile phone, and is being investigated under Section 10 of the Sexual Offenses Against Children Act 2017.
“Five children from the suspect’s neighbourhood came forward with their parents to lodge police reports to assist in the investigation,” he said yesterday.
Alladin is currently serving 48 years, six months in prison and 15 lashes after he was found guilty of sexual offences against children by the Kuching Sessions Court on Aug 16 and 17.
Elaborating on Alladin’s arrest, Aidi said it was the result of cooperation between the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM), especially Bukit Aman D11 Division, and the Sarawak Criminal Investigation Department (CID) together with the Australian police and various other agencies in Malaysia.
“As the suspect’s activities took place on a dark web and without identity disclosure, intelligence and investigation was carried out by D11 Bukit Aman together with AFP which has the expertise in such investigation,” he said.
Aidi said the paedophile case involving Alladin was not the only such case detected in Sarawak.
According to him, since the enactment of the Sexual Offenses Against Children Act 2017 (Act 792) on July 10, 2017 until August 31, 2021, a total of 260 cases of sexual offences against children were investigated by Sarawak police.
“A total of 76 percent of the cases have been successfully prosecuted in court, with more than a quarter of the culprits having been sentenced to prison and the rest are still in the process of trial,” he said.
In this regard, he stressed that the effort to curb such crime should not be done alone but required the cooperation of various parties, including law enforcement agencies both from within and outside the country.
“Similarly, individuals and members of the community are encouraged to come forward to report crimes that occur in their neighbourhood,” he said.
Who is Alladin?
He is not the man who owns the magic lamp but he is among the 10 most wanted individuals in the world for the exploitation of children on the internet.
Alladin is said to be proud after committing his heinous act in a message forum and uploading his activity on the Dark Web, thus inviting Australian police action in a two-year investigation.
Perhaps many had not noticed, Alladin actually already shared his exploits of child abuse over the past 13 years had even been linked to over 1,000 images and videos featuring child abuse.
Special investigating officers from the Australian Federal Police (AFP), Queensland Police and the Australian Transaction Analysis and Reporting Centre (Austrac) had been working hard to arrest Alladin for the past 14 years but who would have thought, this man was actually close to us in Sarawak.
Acting senior AFP officer in Kuala Lumpur detective Daniel Burnicle in a Sydney Morning Herald report was quoted as saying, Alladin actually molested children in farms and longhouses.
Alladin’s modus operandi was to force the children to watch pornographic videos after allowing them to play on his cell phones.
The report also shared Alladin boasting about the inhumane acts.
“He is a paedophile who is very active in finding victims, thus making his arrest a top priority for the police,” Burnicle said.
The Sydney Morning Herald also mentioned that the police did not have much information about Alladin but in August 2020, Austrac’s identity search unit experts finally managed to track down his true identity.
According to Burnicle, tracing the identity of offenders involves a complicated methodological process that involves a variety of images as well as locations.
“Everything is so confidential, especially when tracking individuals on the dark web,” he said.
Initially, the police did not have much information about the accused because the accused’s online profile was anonymous.
Burnicle said Australian investigators, who presented evidence to the prosecution in Kuching, had identified at least 34 victims of Alladin’s sexual assault, but believed the number of victims may have been higher.
