Futile to jail repeat offenders for long periods, says judge

 

A judge says courts should refrain from taking the ‘conventional approach’ when sentencing repeat offenders.

PETALING JAYA: The High Court in Taiping, Perak, has urged lower court judges to refrain from taking the conventional approach of sending repeat offenders to longer jail terms.

Judicial Commissioner K Muniandy said there was no doubt that the imprisonment terms meted out did not have the deterrent effect, “especially when one continues to be habitually leading a life entwined with crime”.

“In the premise, there has to be a coordinated approach by the court to mete out an appropriate sentence,” Muniandy said, in affirming the conviction of Mohammad Syukri Ramli but reducing his jail term and strokes of the rotan.

Syukri, 44, was found guilty of committing armed robbery against two Bangladeshis in Kampung Jalong, Sungai Siput, on June 30, 2018.

A Sessions Court in Kuala Kangsar sentenced him last year to 10 years’ jail on each of the two charges, to run concurrently, and six strokes of the rotan.

Muniandy reduced the sentence to five years and four strokes of the rotan and set aside the lower court’s order for Syukri to pay RM2,000 in prosecution costs, or another four months’ jail in lieu.

Muniandy delivered his 26-page written judgment this week as the prosecution has appealed to the Court of Appeal on inadequacy of sentence while Syukri wants to set aside his conviction.

Kathan Marathumuthu represented the accused while deputy public prosecutor Azrul Faidz Abdul Razak prosecuted.

Syukri has 10 previous convictions from 1997 to 2016 for theft and drugs, during which he was jailed and whipped.

Muniandy said that from the viewpoint of liberty, even a one-day sentence of imprisonment was enough to shackle him from his freedom.

He said it was only proper for the court not to adopt a mathematical approach in sentencing an accused but a more coordinated humane approach in accordance with the facts and circumstances of each case.

He said a slightly shorter jail term may do Syukri good as he would go through rehabilitative counselling, which may have the effect this time for him to ponder on and realise his follies as well as turn over a new leaf.

“Furthermore, he is progressing in age. To lock him up longer this time would definitely not do him any good,” he said, adding that a balanced approach on the aims of sentencing – deterrence and rehabilitation – was favoured.

He said he was of the opinion that Syukri did not deserve a long period of imprisonment just because of his past criminal record and also because of settled judicial principles.

Muniandy also said he found the sentence meted out by the Sessions Court manifestly excessive even though a parang was used in the crime. - FMT