Archive for category Court
Roundtable Conference of concerned MPs, NGOs and NGIs to outline the contours of Parliamentary Inquiry into Altantunya Murder or alternatives before Parliament reconvenes on March 9 being considered by the DAP Legal Bureau
Posted by Kit in Court, Crime, Najib Razak, Police on Monday, 2 February 2015
I have received positive and favourable response to the suggestion for an all-party Parliamentary Committee to inquire into the many unresolved but important and critical public interest questions on the Altantunya Shaariibu Murder Case, despite the end of the Altantuya murder trial and the conviction of two elite policemen Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri and Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar of the Special Action Unit (UTK) for the murder and their death sentence.
Many however are not sanguine that the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Najib and his Cabinet would agree to the proposal for an all-party Parliamentary Committee into the Altantuya Murder, even if the parliamentary committee is headed by a Barisan Nasional MP.
Najib and his Cabinet has a month before Parliament reconvenes on March 9 to decide whether to endorse the establishment of an all-party Parliamentary Committee on Altantunya Murder.
If the Najib Government is not prepared to agree to a Parliamentary Committee or any other form of public investigation into the Altantunya Murder, then the alternatives will have to be explored, including a hybrid of a Parliamentary-Civil Society Inquiry Committee comprising MPs from both the Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat and the civil society (both NGOs and NGIs) who believe that good conscience, national interests and our international reputation for justice, the rule of law and good governance demand that the answers to the many outstanding public interest questions about the Altantuya Murder case must be ascertained.
With the victim a Mongolian and one of the convicted murderers Sirul Azhar Umar holding out in Australia refusing to return to the death row in the country, the inquiry into the unresolved public interest issues in the Altantuya Murder Case will become an international one. Read the rest of this entry »
Pastoral letter in reference to Herald case
Posted by Kit in Constitution, Court, Religion on Tuesday, 27 January 2015
– Julian Leow
The Malaysian Insider
27 January 2015
My Dear People of God,
“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” 2 Timothy 4:7
We have come to the end of a long journey which began in 2008 when we were told that we cannot call God in the way the majority of our Catholics in Malaysia have been used to for centuries.
We mounted a challenge in the court to exercise our constitutional right to manage our own religious affairs. The Church took the position that the minister’s restriction went against the spirit as well as the letter of our Federal Constitution. Read the rest of this entry »
Supremacy of the Federal Constitution
Posted by Kit in Constitution, Court, Islam on Saturday, 24 January 2015
Azrul Mohd Khalib
The Malay Mail Online
January 21, 2015
JANUARY 21 ― The indignant tone that recently came out of Jakim’s Director General Datuk Othman Mustapha, who denounced the questioning of religious authorities as being part of a liberalism movement, is representative of the larger problem we have with the government religious institutions in this country.
They feel that they are above criticism. That they can do no wrong and are infallible. That to criticise them is to question Islam.
Yet, the attitude and actions of the religious authorities over the past decade have shown all too clearly why the Shariah system in Malaysia is where it is in our Federal Constitution.
There is an actual risk of abuse and misuse of power. It is not abstract or theoretical. It is very real. Ask Nik Raina of Borders. Read the rest of this entry »
Court ruling affirms religious authorities are limited by law
Posted by Kit in Constitution, Court, Religion on Tuesday, 30 December 2014
COMMENTARY BY THE MALAYSIAN INSIDER
30 December 2014
There is the law and no one, including religious authorities, can overstep the limits of the law even if they invoke religion as a right.
For too long now, some state religious authorities in Malaysia have issued fatwas (opinions) and treated them as immutable regulations that can be imposed at will and without recourse.
Today, the Court of Appeal affirmed that these state religious authorities have no such power when it upheld a lower court’s ruling that the Federal Territory Islamic Religious Department (Jawi) was wrong in raiding and seizing copies of a controversial book from a Borders bookstore in Kuala Lumpur.
The book, “Allah, Liberty and Love” by Irshad Manji, was seized before a fatwa banning it was issued and, as such, Jawi’s actions were deemed illegal and unconstitutional. Read the rest of this entry »
Speaking about context, what about other sedition cases?
Posted by Kit in Constitution, Court, Crime, Law & Order on Tuesday, 28 October 2014
COMMENTARY BY THE MALAYSIAN INSIDER
27 October 2014
Context, the Attorney-General Chambers said today, was the important ingredient to consider when deciding whether Datuk Ibrahim Ali committed sedition when he threatened to burn bibles that contained the word “Allah” last year.
“As decided by the court, before a statement is said to have seditious tendencies, the statement must be viewed in the context it was made …
“When studied in its entire context, Datuk Ibrahim’s statement is not categorised as having seditious tendencies.
“It was clear Datuk Ibrahim Ali had no intention to create religious tensions, but was only defending the purity of Islam,” the AGC said, noting the Perkasa chief also said: “This is not a sentiment or (an attempt) to provoke religious tensions, but to defend the purity of Islam which is clearly (stated) in the laws.”
“He also did not commit any offence under Section 298 or 298A of the Penal Code as he was clearly defending the purity of Islam.”
Right. So the context is this, Ibrahim was not charged because he said he was not attempting to provoke religious tensions but was defending the purity of Islam.
Well, to put it in context, that is a half-baked explanation by the AGC, a comment after the fact.
In any court, this type of mitigation would have been laughed at. Read the rest of this entry »
When Malaysians flee to get justice
Posted by Kit in Court, Law & Order, Najib Razak on Sunday, 26 October 2014
COMMENTARY BY THE MALAYSIAN INSIDER
26 October 2014
In the same week that Malaysia won a non-permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council, a Malaysian shockingly fled Malaysia to seek asylum and protection from what he called oppression from authorities and gangsters.
Activist Ali Abd Jalil is the second Malaysian in as many weeks who ran away, citing oppressive laws and lacking faith in the system to protect his rights.
Posting in his Facebook page, Ali said “Now I am in Sweden, looking for asylum… the Malaysian government and sultan treated me like rubbish.
“I have been threatened by gangsters and racist Malay groups in Malaysia. Malaysia is not safe for me, police and gangsters are following me all the time.” Read the rest of this entry »
Is Najib so cruel, callous and heartless as to want Anwar to be jailed for 20 years and not released until he is an octogenarian?
Posted by Kit in Anwar Ibrahim, Corruption, Court, Najib Razak on Sunday, 26 October 2014
I find it shocking, unbelievable and outrageous that the Attorney-General is counter-appealing against Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s five-year jail sentence in the Sodomy II case when the Federal Court sits on Tuesday and Wednesday to hear Anwar’s appeal against his Court of Appeal conviction and sentence on March 7.
It has been reported that the prosecution has counter-appealed and wants Anwar to be jailed for more than five years contending that the Court of Appeal’s five-year jail sentence is “manifestly inadequate”, “does not reflect the gravity of the offence” and “fails to serve the ends of justice from the perspective of public interest”.
There are forces among those in power who want to get rid of the Opposition, by “hook or by crook”, but I want to ask the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak whether he is so cruel, callous and heartless as to want Anwar to be jailed for 20 years and not released until he is an octogenarian?
Is this in conformity with Najib’s preaching of wasatiyyah or moderation with its emphasis on the principles of justice, balance and excellence?
Here we see another glaring difference in the political ethos and culture between Malaysia and Indonesia. Read the rest of this entry »
How far back do we go before being seditious becomes ridiculous?
Posted by Kit in Court, Judiciary, Law & Order on Thursday, 11 September 2014
COMMENTARY BY THE MALAYSIAN INSIDER
10 September 2014
Today, a Malaysian preacher was charged with sedition for something he wrote in his Facebook account in November 2012. That is about 22 months ago.
How far will the authorities go back to decide what is seditious and what is not?
Would what Tunku Abdul Rahman say about seeking independence or what Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said in the constitutional crisis of 1983 and 1993 be considered seditious under the Sedition Act 1948? Read the rest of this entry »
Putrajaya’s sledgehammer strategy might blow up in its face
Posted by Kit in Constitution, Court, Law & Order, Najib Razak on Tuesday, 2 September 2014
COMMENTARY BY THE MALAYSIAN INSIDER
1 September 2014
Somewhere in there, lurks a strategy to the Najib government’s decision to use the Sedition Act as a dragnet against citizens of this country.
Critics argue that it is to cower Malaysians into silence, to discourage dissent of any kind, to send a chilling message that thinking is not allowed.
Others say Putrajaya is borrowing out of the playbook of the PAP government in Singapore, a government famous for its sledgehammer approach. In fact, just recently, Umno’s main mouthpiece Utusan Malaysia even suggested that Malaysia look south. Read the rest of this entry »
AG should resign or be replaced if he cannot discharge his duty of public accountability to explain whether he has been guilty of selective and malicious prosecution in recent slew of charges against PR MPs and Assemblymen
Posted by Kit in Constitution, Court, Crime, Law & Order on Friday, 29 August 2014
Although the Attorney-General Tan Sri Gani Patail is vested with the sole discretion under Article 145 of the Malaysian Constitution “to institute, conduct or discontinue any proceedings for an offence” , he owes the Malaysian people a duty of public accountability to explain whether he has been guilty of selective and malicious prosecution in the recent slew of arrests and charges against Pakatan Rakyat Members of Parliament and State Assemblymen.
The new-fangled charge against the PKR Vice President Rafizi Ramli yesterday, for example, was just incredulous and most extraordinary.
Rafizi is charged under Section 504 of the Penal Code on “Intentional insult with intent to provoke a breach of the peace” which states: “Whoever intentionally insults, and thereby gives provocation to any person, intending or knowing it to be likely that such provocation will cause him to break the public peace, or to commit any offence, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years or with fine or with both”.
Rafizi was accused of issuing “defamatory and provocative statements” against Umno members through a statement he made in February, linking Umno with an incident where a Molotov cocktail was thrown at a church.
There have been legion cases of DAP, PKR and PAS members being “defamed” and “provoked” by UMNO/BN leaders and spokespersons, particularly since the 12th General Elections in 2008, but have anyone been arrested and prosecuted in the past six years under Section 504 of the Penal Code, which could lead to the disqualification of a sitting Member of Parliament or State Assemblyperson, resulting in by-elections?
Absolutely none. Why then has this new-fangled charge been trotted out against Rafizi which could lead to his disqualification as MP for Pandan followed by a parliamentary by-election? Read the rest of this entry »
DAP lawmaker accuses A-G of selective prosecution in sedition charge
Posted by Kit in Constitution, Court, Law & Order, Pakatan Rakyat on Friday, 29 August 2014
BY V. ANBALAGAN, ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
The Malaysian Insider
29 August 2014
Seputeh MP Teresa Kok wants to transfer her sedition charge from the Sessions Court to the High Court in a bid to expose what she says is selective prosecution by Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail.
The DAP national vice-chairman said in an application to transfer her case that Gani refused to frame charges against racists and extremists who threatened public order, ridiculed other races and those from minority religions to create disharmony and riots.
She said the High Court was the appropriate forum to investigate that the charge against her amounted to selective prosecution.
She also said the matter could only be brought to the Federal Court if her trial started in the High Court.
“There are many delicate legal questions that will be raised because the A-G’s discretionary powers superseded a citizen’s right to equal protection under the law,” said Kok in the affidavit sighted by The Malaysian Insider.
Sessions judge Norsharidah Awang will hear the application to transfer the case on September 18. Read the rest of this entry »
Is the government running scared of religious authorities?
Posted by Kit in Constitution, Court, Islam on Sunday, 15 June 2014
COMMENTARY BY THE MALAYSIAN INSIDER
15 June 2014
In the past week or so, Malaysians were reminded once again that the country is a parliamentary democracy with a constitutional monarchy. That the Federal constitution is supreme.
So why are elected governments appear to fear appointed religious officials who are now thumbing their noses at the government, the country’s top lawyer and the supreme law?
Why aren’t they standing up to these religious authorities and put them in their place? The government of the day, be it in Putrajaya or any of the state capital, was voted by all Malaysians and not just one particular group.
The government represents all, not just one particular group. So do the police and all branches of the government. Instead they now appear to just consider the views of religious authorities rather than following the law of the land. Read the rest of this entry »
Time for A-G to explain his decisions on charges against opposition leaders, say lawyers
Posted by Kit in Constitution, Court, Judiciary, Law & Order on Thursday, 15 May 2014
BY V. ANBALAGAN, ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
The Malaysian Insider
May 15, 2014
Lawyers today demanded Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail (pic) come out of his cocoon and explain several questionable decisions made by his office relating to charges against opposition leaders which were later thrown out of court.
They are particularly aghast that Gani had decided to go ahead and re-charge opposition leader Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad for his failure to give a 10-day notice to the police under the Peaceful Assembly Act (PAA) to organise a rally.
This was despite the Court of Appeal’s acquittal of Nik Nazmi on April 25 after striking down a punishment provided under the PAA as unconstitutional because it breached the basic rights of citizens to assemble peacefully.
Yesterday, activists Mohd Bukhairy Sofian, Edy Noor Ridzuan and Badrul Hisham Shaharin, or better known as Chegubard, were also granted a discharge not amounting to an acquittal by the lower courts as the judges said they were bound by the Court of Appeal ruling.
The lawyers said that Gani must realise that society’s expectations of him have increased, and he now owes them an explanation.
Gani must defend the integrity of the office he had been holding since 2001, they said. Read the rest of this entry »
Karpal thrilled us with his delivery in court, former judge recalls
by Anisah Shukry
The Malaysian Insider
May 02, 2014
Judges at the Court of Appeal used to eagerly anticipate Karpal Singh’s presence before them, and news of his appearance would immediately give them a ‘lift’, a former appellate court judge recalled this evening.
Speaking at a memorial service for Karpal in Petaling Jaya, Datuk Mahadev Shankar remembered how the fiery lawyer was popular with the judges, all of whom held him in high esteem.
“After I became a judge, I had the opportunity to watch Karpal in action, and I found that he was the best lawyer who ever appeared before me.
“I would rank him the best lawyer in the country,” Mahadev told some 100 people at the memorial organised by Karpal’s former schoolmates from SMK La Salle and St. Xavier’s Institution.
Other speakers at the memorial were Karpal’s son and Puchong MP Gobind Singh Deo, DAP advisor and Gelang Patah MP Lim Kit Siang and former deputy minister of Land and Cooperative Development and former Penang deputy chief minister Dr Goh Cheng Teik.
“He never wasted the court’s time. When he came into court, he went straight for the jugular, without mincing his words.
“More often than not, I agreed with him. Other times, I did not, and I judged against him.
“But this was the opinion of all the judges that time: we put him as number one. When we heard he was coming to court that day, we immediately got a lift,” said the former judge. Read the rest of this entry »
Now Putrajaya wants longer jail sentence for Anwar
Posted by Kit in Anwar Ibrahim, Court, DAP, Judiciary, Parliament on Sunday, 13 April 2014
V. Anbalagan
The Malaysian Insider
April 13, 2014
Putrajaya looks to have turned the screws further on Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim after prosecutors filed a cross-appeal to enhance the five-year jail term against the opposition leader who was found guilty of sodomy last month.
His lawyer Karpal Singh said further Anwar’s appeal against the conviction and sentence appeared to be expedited for hearing in the Federal Court as the court registry had already sent him part of the appeal records.
“After going through the records, I found that the prosecution has appealed to enhance Anwar’s jail term,” Karpal told The Malaysian Insider.
This comes almost two weeks after Putrajaya had also cross-appealed against a lighter sentence imposed on Karpal who was found guilty of sedition.
On March 11, Karpal was fined RM4,000 but the prosecution filed a cross-appeal, urging the Court of Appeal to impose a stiffer penalty. Read the rest of this entry »
For Karpal, no going out the back door
Posted by Kit in Court, DAP, Judiciary, Parliament on Friday, 11 April 2014
Aimee Gulliver
Malaysiakini
Apr 11, 2014
INTERVIEW Nearly 30 years on from one of the first of many threats on his life, Karpal Singh still refuses to slip quietly out the back door.
Then, he was urged by police officers to secretly leave a courtroom to avoid the danger posed by a man, claiming to have spiritual powers, who threatened to attack Karpal for suing the sultan.
Karpal refused, saying “if I go through that back door now, I will go through back doors all my life.”
The 74-year-old lawyer-politician maintains the same stoicism today, in the face of yet another attempt by the government to not only kill his political career, but also to put him in jail.
The sentence for his recent sedition conviction, a RM4,000 fine, precludes Karpal from holding political office and imposes a five-year disqualification period on running for Parliament again.
Malaysia has no upper-age limit to enter Parliament, and Karpal said he would be 82 when he would be eligible to return to politics.
“They are not doing it fairly; it is not the right way to do it,” Karpal said of the attempt to remove him from politics.
But he plans to give the government “a run for their money” on appeal.
“I will fight them to the Federal Court, and if at the end of it I have to go, then that’s too bad. I’ve got nothing left to lose.” Read the rest of this entry »
Malaysia must stop being an international laughing stock as “land of mega financial scandals without criminals” with all patriotic Malaysians demanding that those responsible for the RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal must be identified and brought to book
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Court, Financial Scandals, PKFZ on Thursday, 16 January 2014
I would have won if someone had betted with me whether the RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) “mother of all scandals” had ever been raised or discussed at the second 2014 Cabinet meeting yesterday, especially after the shock double acquittal of two former Transport Ministers in their multiple charges in connection with the scandal.
On Monday, former Transport Minister Tan Sri Chan Kong Choy walked free from the High Court from cheating charges in connection with the PKFZ scandal, the second former Transport Minister to be acquitted in less than three months in connection with the PKFZ scandal.
But clearly, none in the Cabinet meeting yesterday wanted to rock the boat and everybody prefered to “Let sleeping dogs lie”!
But this irresponsible, craven and cowardly attitude cannot be acceptable to Malaysians who want to see the fulfillment of the Malaysian Dream – a united, harmonious, just, competitive and great plural Malaysia nation built on the principles of tolerance, justice, freedom, integrity and good governance where there is zero tolerance for corruption.
Read the rest of this entry »
Judges “misinformed”, Allah ruling tantamount to persecuting Christians – Archbishop Pakiam
BY JENNIFER GOMEZ | OCTOBER 21, 2013
The Malaysian Insider
The head of the Malaysian Catholic Church today said that the decision of the Court of Appeal on the Allah issue was tantamount to persecuting Christians in Malaysia.
Archbishop Tan Sri Murphy Pakiam (pic) noted that the three judges were grossly misinformed in arriving at the decision to ban Catholic weekly Herald from using the word Allah.
He said Christians in Malaysia have been using the word peacefully for centuries and “we do not accept the statement of these judges”.
“As president of the Catholic Bishop’s Conference of Malaysia, I want to say that the three judges were grossly misinformed in their finding that the word Allah is not essential or an integral part of Christianity,” said the archbishop in a statement today.
He added that the first article of faith in the creed for all Christians is “I believe in One God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth”.
“As such, any Christian who denies or modifies this statement of faith, incurs excommunication and would be considered a heretic,” he stressed, adding that Allah was the Bahasa Malaysia translation and the Arabic equivalent of “One God”.
Read the rest of this entry »
Would Malaysia be formed 50 years ago if Court of Appeal Allah judgment was the law of the land
Posted by Kit in Court, Islam, nation building, Religion on Thursday, 17 October 2013
Barely a month after the 50th anniversary of the formation of the Federation of Malaysia, the recent Allah Judgment has raised many important questions for the founding of and the future of our country.
The first point of the 18 point Sarawak agreement and the 20 point Sabah (then North Borneo) agreement emphasized the freedom of religion that must be enjoyed by Sarawak and Sabah as minimum demands for the formation of the Federation of Malaysia.
It should be noted that in the Cobbold Commission Report of 1962, the views of the Chairman and the British members of the Commission were for the insertion into the state constitutions of Sabah and Sarawak a specific provision to guarantee the freedom of religion.
It should also be noted that the Malayan members of the Commission, Ghazali Shafie and Wong Pow Nee both agreed that while Islam would be the national religion for the Federation, they were ‘satisfied that the proposal in no way jeopardises freedom of religion in the Federation, which in effect would be secular’.
Given the importance of the freedom of religion to the peoples of Sabah and Sarawak, would there have been widespread support for the formation of the Federation of Malaysia if the Court of Appeal Allah judgment was the law of the land?
What would have been the reaction of the peoples of Sabah and Sarawak to the findings of the judgment prohibiting the usage of the word “Allah” in the Herald and that the usage of the name “Allah” is “not an integral part of the faith and practice of Christianity”?
Or would history have been overturned and Malaysia, as we know it today, comprising of Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak not be in existence?
Read the rest of this entry »
We Want to Know Who Killed Altantuya
Posted by Kit in Court, Crime, Judiciary, Kee Thuan Chye, Najib Razak on Monday, 26 August 2013
By Kee Thuan Chye
Yahoo! News
24.8.13
The Altantuya Shaariibuu murder case has taken another appalling turn. First, political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda, who seemed to have more of a motive for killing the Mongolian model, was acquitted in 2009, without his defence being called. Now the Court of Appeal has freed the two police commandos convicted by the High Court of actually killing her and blowing her body up with a C4 explosive.
The Court of Appeal acquitted Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri and Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar because it ruled that the judge who heard the case in the High Court committed serious misdirection. Among other things, he did not allow then deputy prime minister Najib Razak’s aide-de-camp, DSP Musa Safri, a key witness, to be called to testify, and he failed to establish how the two accused came to possess the C4 and whether there was common intention between them to commit murder.
The Malaysian layman, however, doesn’t want to know the legal implications. He is concerned only with the moral aspects. He knows that Sirul made a cautioned statement describing what he and Azilah did to Altantuya that fateful night, and that he mentioned the offer of a reward of RM50,000 to RM100,000 for killing her.
This cautioned statement was ruled not permissible as evidence by the judge, Mohd Zaki Yassin, and the two commandos were never asked during the trial as to who made that offer to them. But it seemed clear that Sirul and Azilah were merely hitmen. They didn’t know the victim. If they had a motive to kill her, it would appear to be only to collect the reward.
That being so, it was, however, never asked in court who instructed them to kill Altantuya. To the layman, it is extremely strange that the prosecution did not ask that crucial question. Read the rest of this entry »
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