KOTA KINABALU: A warrant of arrest has been issued against restaurant manager Riduan Masmud, 40, who failed to turn up in court for sentencing on Monday after he was found guilty of raping a 13-year-old schoolgirl.

Sessions Court judge Ummu Kalthom Samad said she was not satisfied with the medical chit (MC) produced by Riduan’s counsel Lo Yun Sin at the start of the hearing.

Lo tendered the MC, saying that Riduan's family gave him the document at about 8am.

After reading the document, Ummu however, said the MC only stated that Riduan was given medical leave for one day and did not say when he could attend court again or what exactly was his ailment.

''If he has chicken pox for example, he could be out for two weeks," Ummu said in ordering a 30-minute recess for Lo to contact Riduan or his family to obtain more details about the MC.

However, after the break, Lo told the court that he was unable to contact his client nor any of the family members prompting Ummu to issue the warrant of arrest and ordering it to be reviewed on Feb 3.

Riduan, a father of four children aged between two and 17, was charged with raping the schoolgirl in a parked vehicle on a road near Kionsom Waterfall in Inanam between 9 and 10am on Feb 18.

The news shocked the nation when he later took the schoolgirl as second wife in May.

On Friday, Ummu convicted Riduan of rape and had fixed sentencing on Monday.