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©New Straits Times
(Used by permission)
by V. Anbalagan
KUALA LUMPUR: A housewife sentenced to death for murdering a sundry shop owner
wants the Federal Court to order a retrial.
Counsel Karpal Singh, who is appearing for R. Amathevelli,
said his client had been prejudiced as the trial judge who convicted her had
taken five years to supply the grounds of judgment.
"She spent the first three years of her arrest as a remand prisoner and the
remaining seven in death row. She was traumatised," he said, adding that this
was an extraordinary case and the apex court should order a retrial.
Karpal said the unexplained delay in providing the written grounds resulted in a
manifest miscarriage of justice because there was the likelihood of the trial
judge having a blurred impression of the demeanour of the witness.
He said despite several reminders, judge Datuk Muhamad Ideres Muhammad Rapee had
only supplied the written grounds on Dec 5 last year.
"The trial judge was pressured to write his grounds after
instances of judges failing to write judgments were published in the media and
raised in Parliament last year."
Karpal said in rushing to provide the grounds, Ideris would have increased the
chances of omission to deal with material facts and issues which would have been
favourable to Amathevelli.
He said the Court of Appeal dismissed Amathevelli's appeal in May on grounds
that it could not find any prejudice against her after going through the notes
of evidence. It acknowledged that there was a delay but went on to merely
express regret.
Karpal said in the United Kingdom, a judge who had delayed writing his grounds
for 20 months was reprimanded and a retrial was ordered by a superior court.
"The judge concerned resigned within hours. However, in Malaysia our judges
don't do that."
He quoted another case in Australia where a former supreme court judge, who sat
on a case for 17 months, was lambasted and provided a judgment that reflected it
was written in haste and under pressure.
Karpal said the delay in the Australian case was never explained and was
"destructive to the quality of the judgment".
He said failure to deliver judgments on time was a disservice to the
administration of justice and judges in Malaysia who contravened a circular on
the matter by the chief justice could face a tribunal for misconduct, although
in practice this was not done.
Amathevelli, now 52, was convicted of murdering A. Soosaiammah at Kampung Gatco,
Air Hitam, Jempol, Negri Sembilan, on May 17, 1998.
She was arrested by the police the following day and remanded. The trial started
on Jan 25, 2000, and she was sentenced to death on Nov 8, 2002.
Hearing before Federal Court judges Datuk Arifin Zakaria, Datuk S. Augustine
Paul and Datuk Zulkefli Ahmad Makinudin continues tomorrow.
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Circular No 297/2008
