Judiciary to act against judge for not writing judgment in sedition case

A Malaysian Sessions Court judge will be asked to explain why he has yet to write his judgment after convicting human rights activist P. Uthayakumar (pic) for sedition earlier this year.

Chief Justice Tun Arifin Zakaria told The Malaysian Insider that a showcause would be issued through the Chief Judge of Malaya (both the Sessions and Magistrate's Courts in West Malaysia are under the supervision of the CJM).

"Disciplinary action according to general orders can be taken if the reply is not satisfactory," he told The Malaysian Insider in Putrajaya.

Arifin said this in response to questions on judge Ahmad Zamzani Mohd Zain who has yet to prepare the written grounds four months after sentencing Uthayakumar to 30 months in jail.

Uthayakumar was found guilty of publishing seditious remarks on the Police Watch website over a letter to former British prime minister Gordon Brown in 2007.

His lawyer, M. Manoharan, said he filed the notice of appeal on June 6, a day after the court verdict.

He also wrote three letters to the judge's secretary but there has been no reply.

Uthayakumar did not apply for bail to remain free and instead opted to go to prison while waiting for his appeal to be heard.

Manoharan said the High Court would not be able to hear his client's appeal without a written judgment.

Arifin said there was a practice direction that trial judges must make available their judgment for both criminal and civil cases within eight weeks of an aggrieved party filing an appeal.

"But in some cases like the trial of Altantuya (Shaariibuu) the judge was given exemption as he had to deal with voluminous records," he said.

Arifin said action has been taken in the past against errant judges for their failure to provide written grounds.

"We have terminated the services of judicial commissioners or did not confirm them as High Court judges.

"We had also serving judges who were asked to leave," he said.