PUTRAJAYA – The Court of Appeal has fixed August 15 to hear an appeal by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) against a Temerloh High Court decision that set aside a remand order issued on six policemen.
Lawyer Datuk Geethan Ram Vincent, representing three of the policemen, confirmed the date when contacted today.
The two dates, July 20 and August 14, that were fixed by the court earlier have been vacated, he said.
The six policemen were arrested for allegedly soliciting and accepting bribes amounting to RM5,000.
Lawyers Revin Kumar Shasai Kumar, Lavanyia Raja, and Eu Kah Mun have been appointed to represent the other three policemen.
In his grounds of judgment dated last May 11, judicial commissioner Roslan Mat Nor ruled that MACC cannot use the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) to remand suspects for investigations.
He said Section 49 of the MACC Act 2009 gives the commission specific powers it must use when carrying out investigations.
Roslan said MACC officers can make an arrest under section 49 (2) of the MACC Act and can ask for a remand order under section 49 (3) of the same act.
In exercising his revisionary power, Roslan set aside the remand order issued by a registrar of the Temerloh court against the six policemen, who included an inspector, under Section 117 of the CPC.
He said he read an article in an online Malay portal last May 7 which stated that the policemen were detained for six days pursuant to a remand order issued by the registrar.
He said it was necessary for him to call up the case for revision to ascertain whether the remand order had complied with the provisions under Section 323 of the CPC. – Bernama, July 21, 2023a
