The flip-flops in our judicial system

The Sessions Court's initial sentence on Rozita Mohd Ali was ludicrous, but the suspension of the subsequent 8-year jail term makes us wonder what is happening in our judiciary.

COMMENT

Rozita Mohd Ali, who was given a good behaviour bond of five years, then an 8-year jail sentence which has now been suspended. (Bernama pic)

If you had a domestic worker who was tasked with taking care of your children and elderly parents, you would be furious if the maid was found to have beaten the children or mistreated your parents in any way.

Everyone would want a domestic worker who has committed a crime to be tried and sentenced by a proper court of law. We would be appalled if, for some unknown reason, the maid who abused both children and geriatrics was freed or allowed days away from prison.

Only in extremely rare cases are jailbirds given permission to spend time away from prison, for example to attend the funeral of a parent. Not everyone is accorded such privileges. What is the point of a jail sentence if convicts are allowed “time off” for festivals or other celebrations?

Now, turn the situation around.

The news on May 30 that the Court of Appeal had suspended the eight-year jail sentence on Rozita Mohd Ali for abusing her maid was both shocking and disappointing.

The judge who chaired the three-man Court of Appeal bench said Rozita’s sentence had been suspended due to exceptional circumstances.

The court ordered her to post RM25,000 bail in two sureties and impounded her passport. Part of the conditions for her release was that she must report to the Damansara Utama police station once every fortnight.

Rozita was initially charged with the attempted murder of her Indonesian domestic worker, Suyanti Sutrinso, whom she attacked in June 2016 with a knife, a mop, a clothes hanger, an iron bar, and an umbrella.

The charge was later reduced to causing grievous hurt, to which she pleaded guilty.

Rozita escaped imprisonment when a Sessions Court judge let her off with a good behaviour bond of five years. She was also told to pay a surety of RM20,000.

This rap on the knuckles prompted a backlash, and she disappeared from the public scene. When she finally emerged and was brought to court, the High Court judge reversed the earlier Sessions Court ruling and sentenced her to eight years in jail.

The flip-flopping and backtracking on her sentence serves neither the Malaysian people nor the victim, Suyanti. It makes a mockery of justice; it humiliates Suyanti as it implies that her ordeal was of little significance; and most of all, it poses no deterrent to would-be abusers.

What were the exceptional circumstances that facilitated the suspension of her sentence? These were not mentioned by the court.

If it was because of a legal technicality, why didn’t Rozita’s lawyer observe, comment on, or object to it at the time of her sentencing? Why the two-and-a-half month delay?

Her lawyer, Mohamed Haniff Khatri Abdulla, said there were two grounds of appeal against the High Court decision. He asked whether the court was correct to proceed with the revision when the prosecution’s appeal was still pending, and whether it was right to alter the sentence.

Haniff claimed Rozita needed physiotherapy for back pain. That is a lame excuse. When former opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim complained that he needed treatment for his back problems while in the Sungai Buloh prison, he was told that the prison hospital would decide on this. Why should Rozita be given special treatment? Other prison inmates could then also demand the same leniency and medical grounds for release.

If we do not punish those who are guilty, people will never learn.

The Sessions Court’s punishment seems ludicrous, and the latest suspension of her sentence makes us wonder if our judiciary is fit for the purpose.

This is the level of justice that we grew to despise under Umno leadership. The rakyat abhorred it then, and they abhor it now.

It is time to reinstate the rule of law, and to demand that justice be applied equally to every Malaysian.

Mariam Mokhtar is an FMT columnist.