Lawyers laud trials conducted during MCO

 

To ensure justice is served, legal practitioners laud the move by the judiciary to continue the hearing of cases in court during the movement control order (MCO) period.

They are also of the opinion that frequent postponement of criminal case trials would also burden all parties involved, including the lawyers and accused.

Lawyer Azi Azlin Zulkifli said case hearings that were postponed for too long following the MCO would affect witnesses in terms of recollecting the crime incidents in question.

‘’In my opinion, the directive issued (by Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat) is in keeping with the legal maxim, namely, ‘justice delayed is justice denied’.

‘’The courts should be allowed to convene for all cases because there is no obstacle for other government agencies to function. For example, government hospitals are operating at higher capacities than the courts,’’ he told Bernama today.

Sharing his opinion was lawyer Siti Nor Syahidah Ismail who reiterated that frequent postponements of case trials would burden all parties concerned.

Lawyer Azman Abdullah said most cases were postponed for the duration of the MCO and this affected the rights of the accused who were being remanded in jail for case trials that should have ended earlier.

He said the handling of bails was also difficult with cases often put off and the accused not taken to court due to Covid-19.

He said although court proceedings would go on as usual from Jan 27, the standard operating procedure (SOP) must be strictly complied with to curb the spread of the virus.

Yesterday, Maimun issued a directive for all criminal case proceedings including those of public interest to continue in open court in the states placed under the MCO effective Jan 27.

According to the directive, among the criminal cases that will be given priority are the pre-2020 ones by giving preference to the continuation of trials, cases involving child offenders, and those of public interest.

These cases involve corruption, commercial crime, environmental, habeas corpus, domestic violence, and flouting the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988.

- Bernama