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• Who will be prosecuting?

©The Star (Used by permission) 
by Stephen Then

MIRI: For justice to be served, there should not be more than three remand extensions for suspects in criminal cases and each criminal case must be resolved within three months, said Tan Sri Richard Malanjum.

The Chief Justice of Sabah and Sarawak said limits on to how many remand extensions could be allowed and how much time must be allocated for a case to be resolved needed to be implemented in the interests of justice. 

“There have been cases of detainees being remanded for up to three years and detainees caught up in lengthy remand who ended up losing their families, children and businesses because they were behind bars even though they had not been convicted of any crime.

“This is not fair,” he said when declaring open the Sarawak Legal Year 2008 here yesterday.

Malanjum said the judiciary was seeking the cooperation of the police, the prosecution, the defence and the members of the bench to adhere to these limits:

> a maximum of three extensions of remand for crime suspects,

> a maximum three months for disposal of a criminal case in subordinate courts and nine months for civil case by this year-end and

> a maximum three months for disposal of a criminal case in High Court and 12 months for civil cases by next year.

“There is currently a serious shortage of prosecuting officers and Deputy Public Prosecutors in the country and this is one of the main reasons why there are difficulties in getting cases dealt with fast.

“Judges and magistrates are working doubly hard to ensure that the waiting period for cases be reduced as much as possible but we need the help of all parties concerned.

“We hope the prosecution can dispose of a (criminal) case within three months from the date the case is mentioned. This problem must be resolved,” he stressed.

Malanjum, however, said the court understood cases could be complicated, especially civil ones, that took time to be heard and justly dealt with.

However, for cases that involved detainees in remand, they must not be forced to wait for years, he said.

He praised Sarawak for resolving backlogs of court cases, pointing out that this state had an excellent record in Malaysia for solving outstanding cases at all courts.

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