Prosecution seeks revision of Long Tiger’s discharge by court

 

Abdul Hamim Ab Hamid, better known as Long Tiger, was given a discharge not amounting to an acquittal on May 17. (Bernama pic)

MUAR: The prosecution today applied for a revision of the Tangkak magistrates’ court’s decision to grant a discharge not amounting to an acquittal (DNAA) to Abdul Hamim Ab Hamid, notoriously known as Long Tiger, for extortion.

The application was filed before Muar High Court judge Abu Bakar Qatar who then set June 1 for the decision.

On May 17, lawyer Shaharudin Ali, who represented Hamim, 33, requested that his client be released without bail on the grounds that the case was groundless because the complainant, who was the prosecution’s first witness, had died.

However, deputy public prosecutor Syafiq Mohd Ghazali said based on the law, regardless of whether a complainant had died or was still alive, the proceedings would continue unless the charge was incomplete, its meaning was unclear or the accused did not know he was charged with a particular offence.

Shaharudin, on the other hand, asked how the case could be proven if the complainant had died.

The Tangkak magistrates’ court granted Hamim a DNAA on the extortion charge.

Hamim was charged on May 6, 2020, with extortion by intimidating Luqman Hakeem Othman, 20, in order to force the latter’s wife to drop a police report on a case against him.

The offence was allegedly committed at a restaurant in Bukit Gambir, Tangkak, between 7pm and 9pm in October 2019 under Section 388 of the Penal Code which provides for imprisonment of up to 10 years and a fine or whipping, if convicted.

However, Luqman Hakeem, who was Hamim’s former employee, was involved in a road accident in Tangkak and died at the Sultanah Fatimah Specialist Hospital here on March 23.

Earlier today, the Tangkak magistrate’s court rejected Shaharudin’s application for his client to be granted a DNAA on charges of threatening Luqman Hakeem under Section 506 of the Penal Code and confining him under Section 342, on the grounds that the complainant had died.

Apart from the three charges, on Aug 8 last year, Hamim, who is of Rohingya ethnicity, was also charged with raping a woman on Sept 26, 2019.

Hamim, who infamously fled while awaiting trial at the Tangkak magistrates’ court in December last year, was sentenced to 12 months in jail by the same court, after pleading guilty to deliberately fleeing from police custody. - FMT