PETALING JAYA: The High Court today dismissed the prosecution’s criminal revision to set aside a magistrate’s ruling to offer bail to a foreign student charged with not having a permit to stay in Malaysia.
Judicial Commissioner Nurulhuda Nuraini Mohamed Nor said the offence was bailable.
“Are you aware that the Federal Court has allowed bail even for a security offence case?,” she asked deputy public prosecutor Heikal Ismail. Nurulhuda said as such she found no reason to disturb the magistrate’s ruling.
She also asked Heikal whether Bangladeshi national Md Asraful Gani Chy’s case was now academic since the investigation officer had verified with the Immigration authorities that he had valid documents.
Earlier, Heikal told the court that bail should be denied until Chy’s trial was over.
He also told the court that the investigating police officer had verified that Chy’s travel documents were in order. Nurulhuda then remitted the matter for the magistrate to make the necessary orders.
Lawyer Rajpal Singh, representing Chy, then applied to the High Court asking if it could expedite his client’s case scheduled on Feb 5 since the matter was now academic.
Nurulhuda suggested parties to write to the magistrate to sort out the matter.
Police arrested Chy on Nov 3 at a restaurant where he was meeting a friend. He told the raiding officer he was pursuing a degree course at a local private university and produced his student card to prove it.
He explained that the university was holding his passport to enable a visa renewal.
The officer did not accept the explanation and Chy was held under police custody and not produced before a magistrate for a remand order. The Immigration Act allows this.
The university subsequently sent a representative of its student affairs department, Jamalullail Alias, to the Sea Park police station to hand over the passport but was told that the investigating officer had himself been been detained for a probe.
On Nov 13, after he had been locked up for 10 days, Chy was produced at a magistrate’s court and charged with not having a valid pass or permit to stay in Malaysia.
He claimed trial and was sent to Bentong prison.
Three days later, his predicament came to the knowledge of a friend, who proceeded to engage a lawyer for his defence.
He was again produced before the magistrate on Nov 25 and was granted bail of RM6,000 with two sureties because he was due to sit for an examination. He was also ordered to report to the Sea Park police once a month.
However, the deputy public prosecutor then filed a revision in the High Court to challenge the magistrate’s decision to offer bail to Chy.
In another matter, Nurulhuda also dismissed the prosecution’s revision to offer bail to 30 Chinese nationals who had entered the country on social visit passes before the movement control order (MCO) was enforced in March.
They were detained in Seri Kembangan in Serdang between Oct 24 and Oct 31 for overstaying. It was found that all of them had valid passports which were kept by an agent.
A magistrate had offered bail between RM5,000 and RM8,000 to the accused persons pending their case to be mentioned on Feb 2.
Lawyer Suraj Singh, who represented the Chinese nationals, said the investigating officer in their cases had also verified with the Immigration Department that their travel documents were genuine. - FMT
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