What happened to the famous Lady of Justice?

We turn to the courts for justice but when a simple court procedure mocks justice, how is justice served? A retired civil servant was arrested for violating the movement control order (MCO) on Monday, 20 April 2020. He was to be charged the next day, Tuesday. We don’t know his age or why he was out on that day. He arrived as early as 8.45am to be charged but his proceedings did not start until 4.15pm. The poor man had to wait seven-and-a-half hours before his case came up rather late towards the evening.

He pleaded not guilty and the Magistrate, Nur Farahain Roslan, granted bail of RM1,500 with one surety.So far so good! But a problem cropped up when it came to posting the bail. At this point in time, all the banks authorised to process bail applications had already closed for the day. According to his lawyer, Tay Yi Kuan, the Maybank branch at the Kuala Lumpur Court Complex, which is authorised to process bail applications, was closed during the MCO.

As such, lawyers and family members of the accused would need to go to the only other authorised bank branch at Sri Hartamas. But that bank branch, it seems, closes around 2pm on weekdays during the MCO. That was not the only problem. Even the KL Court Complex’s bail counter closed at around 4pm. Thus, another avenue at the court premises was also not available when bail was granted.According to the lawyer, “At about 3.15pm, I also found out that the e-jamin facility at the bail counter was not working.”

This facility allows a bailor to make an online payment to the court within minutes. The accused’s son was the bailor and was present in court. In other words, the bailor, who was the pensioner’s son, was there with cash and he was in a position to make payment immediately – but all the facilities to enable payment were not available to him. Thus, he could not post bail through no fault of his own. All these facts – except the fact that the e-jamin facility at the bail counter was not working – were made known, and the lawyer applied to the magistrate if the bail could be posted the next day because of the extenuating circumstances.

The magistrate did not allow the application, resulting in the retiree being remanded overnight at the Sungai Buloh Prison. The court ruling reminded me of Abraham Lincoln’s wise words, “I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.” Lincoln himself was a lawyer. The bail was posted the next day and the accused was released. Even though the accused was released the next morning when the bail was paid, the courts should have rightly taken note of the difficulty and the problems faced by the accused in posting bail that day when it was granted.

Not only was the MCO a contributory factor to the difficulty in posting bail but the court itself was responsible for this situation when the accused’s case was called so late in the day at 4.15 pm, thus making it difficult for him to post bail.