Crime

Father faces jail term for forcing baby to smoke

Published

7 years ago

February 25, 2018

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A father is facing a possible jail term after he posted a picture of his nine-month-old son apparently smoking a cigarette.

The 36 year old is said to have put the cigarette in his son’s mouth then got his wife Ummu Slamah, 18, to take a picture.

Her husband Muzammil, 36, found it funny and posted a picture on social media which is where it was spotted by police on Madura Island, to the west of Indonesia.

Bangkalan Police spokesman Bidarudin said: ‘We have secured the father for putting the cigarette in the infant’s mouth, even if the baby is his own child. ‘The child had the lit cigarette in his mouth.

The culprit sat the child up, and he also held the child up by the arms because he was worried that (the baby) would get burned by cigarette ash.’

Police are said to be aware that the mother of the baby, identified only by his initials A.I., took the photo but she did not face arrest.. Local media said there was no precise charge in Indonesian law of encouraging children to smoke.

But it was reported that Muzammil could be jailed for six months under the Child Protection Act. Smoking is common in Indonesia, though far more men than women take up the harmful habit. Statistics show 63 percent of men but only five percent of women are smokers.

The proportion of under-18s who smoke went up from 7.2 percent in 2014 to 8.8 percent in 2016.