Between a kangaroo court and a court in kangaroo land

Justice Refshauge, in a decision handed down on March 26, ordered Moh to be released immediately from jail after finding that Lalor had not met his obligations under the sentencing laws or the Human Rights Act.
NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Magistrate rude to Malaysian offender, court rules

(Bernama) - A Canberra magistrate was so rude during his sentencing of a Malaysian criminal last year that he breached the defendant’s human rights, the Supreme Court has found.

Magistrate Grant Lalor’s treatment of petty criminal Moh Gim Em in his court in December failed to give Goh the dignity he deserved as a human being, according to Supreme Court Justice Richard Refshauge, the Canberra Times reported.

The judge found that Lalor failed to treat Moh with the “courtesy and respect” demanded by the Human Rights Act, was rude to his lawyer and used extreme and exaggerated language to describe Moh’s conduct.

Lalor’s decision to send the credit card fraudster to jail for six months last December was found, on appeal last week, to have been “infected with error” and Moh, was freed from prison.

The magistrate imposed the jail sentences on Moh on Dec 16 after he pleaded guilty to four counts of possessing a false document and one of trying to obtain goods fraudulently, the newspaper said.

Moh admitted to being sent by Sydney gangsters to Canberra, equipped with fake credit cards and a driver’s licence and instructed to use the cards to buy electronic goods in the city’s shops.

But Justice Refshauge found that Lalor’s descriptions of the offences, that Moh “was turned loose to burgle the stores of Canberra with false credit cards” and “turned loose with instructions to rape and pillage the stores of Canberra” were extreme.

“It’s important that a judicial officer, in sentencing, describes the offences and their criminality with fairness and measured accuracy,” he said.

The newspaper said Moh’s lawyer, Helen Corey, appealed against the sentence imposed by Lalor, arguing that it was manifestly excessive, that her client had not been given enough credit for his early guilty plea or his clean criminal record and that Lalor had failed to consider options other than jail.

Justice Refshauge, in a decision handed down on March 26, ordered Moh to be released immediately from jail after finding that Lalor had not met his obligations under the sentencing laws or the Human Rights Act.

“Anyone deprived of liberty must be treated with humanity and respect for the inherent dignity of the human person,” he said, adding that in sentencing Moh, the magistrate fell short of this obligation.

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You may have noticed that Malaysia Today has been very erratic the last couple of days. This is because we have been suffering non-stop DDOS attacks. In fact, Free Malaysia Today (FMT) too has been subjected to the same attacks.

This is what FMT reported today:

FMT comes under DDOS attack

The FreeMalaysiaToday news website has been facing severe technical glitches, leading to a disruption in services.

The fledgling independent news website has been the target of a consistent “Distributed Denial of Service or DDOS” attack.

FMT's head of information technology N Thirun said that measures are being put in place to address this issue.

“It is a very intelligent and planned attack. Previously, they were just teasing us but the situation has now become serious. Yesterday, we came under relentless attack.

“We are currently working around the clock to mitigate the problem and are in the midst of setting up a long-term solution,” he added.

Meanwhile, FMT's managing editor Phlip Rodrigues expresses regret over this unfortunate interruption of service to its readers.

“We hope to solve this problem soon,” he said.

It looks like we have struck a raw nerve and there are certain forces bent on taking us down. Could this be about the reports on Bukit Aman being infiltrated by Israelis spies?

Now read that report from Bernama about the Australian court. It seems in Australia, the land of the kangaroos, the judge has to treat you with dignity or else it would be regarded as a violation of your fundamental human rights. In Malaysia, the land of the kangaroo courts, they can treat you like shit and then send you to jail if you protest.

My good friend Matthias Chang stood up to the abusive court and he is now in jail because of it. And just as I thought he would do and just as I myself would have done, Matthias launched a hunger strike and is now in hospital.

I am glad to see that Salahuddin Hisham and a few friends of Matthias have got together to pay the RM20,000 fine that the court imposed on him so that he can be brought home. Salahuddin is an Umno Blogger. However, although he is with the ‘other side’, I still regard him as my friend and I salute their move to break Matthias out of jail -- the legal way of course.

It is time the Malaysian courts, in particular the judges and prosecutors, be told in the strongest terms that they cannot treat us like shit any longer. Gone are the days when the courts could play God and sometimes, in fact, regarded themselves above God. No doubt we are brought before the court to face a charge on whatever crime we are alleged to have committed. But we are still human, even if we are finally found guilty.

We may lose our freedom if we are found guilty of a crime. But this does not mean we have also lost our dignity or our fundamental human rights. This, Malaysians do not seem to understand. They think that once we are charged and are facing trial this would mean we lose all our rights, even the right to be treated with some decency.

The IGP wants Anwar Ibrahim to offer evidence to support his allegation that Israeli spies have infiltrated Bukit Aman. Well, maybe the IGP can dig up the police report that Johari Ismail lodged at the Dang Wangi Police Station awhile back.

Johari Ismail is an Umno Johor man. The opposition did not make this police report. The police report was made by someone from Umno. What more does the IGP need? Johari Ismail’s police report was made with full documents and evidence attached. So go investigate that.

Hey, many Statutory Declarations have been signed alleging the IGP of wrongdoings and misconduct. Yet no investigation was launched. Now the IGP wants Anwar to provide the evidence to support the allegation that Israeli spies have infiltrated Bukit Aman. Would it make any difference to the police whether there is evidence or not? Even when there is evidence nothing is done.

Okay, IGP, investigate this.

The man behind the police computerisation program is BK Tan. BK Tan’s office is at Amcorp Mall. And the IGP’s son also has a room in BK Tan’s office. Do you still need more evidence or is this enough for you to start an investigation going?

Podah Musa! Talk cock only!