Annuar should be dealt higher fine, say lawyers

 

Annuar Musa was issued a compound notice for RM2,000 for having lunch with former prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

PETALING JAYA: Two lawyers have criticised the police decision to be lenient with federal territories minister Annuar Musa in punishing him for his recent violation of a Covid-19 SOP.

The lawyers, SN Nair and Jeyaseelan Anthony, noted that Annuar’s visit of former prime minister Abdullah Badawi at his residence last weekend represented the second time he had flouted an SOP.

Speaking to FMT, they said he deserved a stiffer fine than the RM2,000 compound that Dang Wangi police said he was slapped with.

Nair said Annuar, being a member of the Cabinet, would have been aware that he was breaching movement restrictions.

He said the punishment should have been punitive.

“Ordinary folk are fined RM10,000 and the majority of them are ignorant about what’s right and wrong under the SOPs,” he said. “In fact, in the past, some were arrested.

“I’m not asking for an arrest, but it must be punitive since he was a second offender. This in line with what we call equality before the law. If a VIP is given just a slap on the wrist for openly flouting the law, it undermines our justice system.”

Anthony said a RM10,000 fine might be too excessive but agreed that it should have been higher than RM2,000 since Annuar was a repeat offender and there was a “short gap between this and the previous offence”.

In a now-deleted Twitter post on Saturday, Annuar said he and his wife spent two hours having lunch with the fifth prime minister.

Visiting is not allowed under the current SOPs for Kuala Lumpur.

Last February, Annuar paid a RM1,000 fine for dining at the same table with six others during a visit to a community centre project in Cheras. At the time, only two people to a table were allowed when eating out.

Later that month, the government gazetted the Emergency (Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases) (Amendment) Ordinance 2021, which provided for a maximum fine of RM10,000 for breach of SOPs.

The then senior minister for security, Ismail Sabri Yaakob, said large fines under the ordinance would be only for repeat offences. - FMT