14 days’ remand to verify papers of foreign wife? Absurd, says lawyer

 

Lawyer V Vemal Arasan said Malaysia has a system which can verify these documents within hours.

KLANG: A lawyer has questioned the need for police to detain a Vietnamese woman, who is legally married to a local, for 14 days to ascertain whether her documents are valid when Malaysia has a system which can do it “within” hours.

V Vemal Arasan said a magistrate had given Klang Utara police a 14-day remand to hold Tran Thi Thoai Trin, 25, under the Immigration Act to verify her documents after she was arrested for failing to register with the MySejahtera app before going into a restaurant early this week.

“The mother of one is married to a property agent and there is a system in place to instantly verify her status at any police station or immigration centre,” he told FMT.

Vemal said Tran was now being held at the Immigration Depot in Sepang, a centre designated for illegal migrants.

The lawyer said that although the Immigration Act allowed for such detention, Tran’s case was an exception as she was in possession of valid documents to be in the country.

He said Tran’s husband was prepared to pay the compound fine and had produced all the necessary documents so she could be freed.

“The husband provided the original documents to the police on March 13 but they presumed they were fake and wanted to verify them.

“However, in this technologically advanced age, you don’t need two weeks to undertake the exercise,” he said, adding that the law should not be abused.

Meanwhile, the lawyer yesterday filed a revision application for a High Court judge to quash the remand order as unlawful.

“However a court official told me to settle the matter as it was between my client and the police investigating officer,” he said.

He said the official sent an e-mail this evening to inform him that a judge had rejected the application without hearing from him and a government lawyer.

“A revision is allowed for this matter and under normal circumstances, parties will be given the opportunity to be heard,” he said.

Vemal said he had written to Chief Judge of Malaya Azahar Mohamed today to direct any other judge to hear again the application even if it was a weekend as she had been unfairly denied her liberty.

He said Tran’s case was yet another injustice endured by some foreign nationals in Malaysia as their personal liberty was being trampled upon. - FMT