Malaysia to return envoy wanted in sex case to New Zealand

Malaysia will send a diplomat back to New Zealand to face an attempted rape charge, the foreign ministry said on Wednesday, as a diplomatic storm erupted over the case. Muhammad Rizalman Ismail, a former defence staff assistant at Malaysia’s high commission (embassy) in Wellington, escaped prosecution on attempted rape and burglary charges and returned to Malaysia in May after his country invoked diplomatic immunity. But in an about-turn the foreign ministry said Muhammad Rizalman would be sent back ‘to assist in the investigation for the charges of burglary and assault’.