KUALA LUMPUR: The single mother initially jailed a month for breaching the movement control order (MCO) today maintained that her sentence was a form of injustice, saying public figures who had committed a similar offence were only slapped with fines.
B Lisa Christina, whose jail term was later substituted with a RM1,000 fine, gained public attention after comparing her punishment with that of the daughter and son-in-law of Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
Nurul Hidayah Ahmad Zahid and Saiful Nizam Mohd Yusoff were let off with a fine of RM800 each.
“I did not know it would go viral,” she added, referring to her Facebook post on the matter which she later deleted.
At a press conference with Batu MP P Prabakaran here, Lisa, who served eight days of her 30-day sentence, said she did not wish the same experience on anyone else.
“I was laughed at by foreign inmates for having to serve a one-month sentence over the MCO.
“Some of them received lesser jail sentences than I did for MCO and drug offences,” she said.
“What happened to me could happen to anyone out there, too.”
Lisa, who has a six-year-old son, left her apartment unit on April 12 to buy a packet drink at a nearby shop. She had stopped to chat with three others before returning home when she was caught by the police.
She was handed a 30-day jail sentence by the Petaling Jaya Magistrate’s Court which was substituted on appeal with the fine, the maximum amount allowed for the offence.
Speaking today, she said she was bailed out by a friend at the police station and told to appear at the court a week later.
“A lawyer who was there assisted me in mitigating before the court.
“The lawyer advised me to admit to the offence and pay off the fine.”
She said she was taken aback when, upon pleading guilty, she was handed the jail sentence instead. She was immediately taken for detention at the court complex before heading to Kajang prison.
She added that two other individuals brought to court before her were only fined RM1,000 for MCO offences that day.
She said a prison warden had told her to appear at the High Court on April 29 as a revision had been filed by the lawyer and co-counsel.
“In fact, the lawyer called my mother and told her that he would be appealing,” she said.
Prabakaran meanwhile said he would raise the issue of differences in sentencing at the coming Dewan Rakyat sitting.
“I heard of a case where an individual was arrested for going out from his house because of poor phone signal,” he said. - FMT
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