Simple basic rules Police fail to comply

Basically, the police officers should take up law classes plus should sit for law examination more often to make sure this type of over seeing doesn't happen. Don't you feel the police is totally unprofessional in handling the matter like this, even the minister at times too. If a woman lodges an information alleging that A has raped her, then by showing or supplying A with the first information, he is given the opportunity to explain the circumstances; he may show that there was in fact no rape and the woman consented to the whole thing.

Similarly, if A is accused of murder in a first information, he may explain that he was elsewhere at the time or show circumstances that the act was an accident. Now if A did not see the information, he would not be able to vindicate himself or to meet the various particulars alleged in the first information.

The illustration is not mine, but that of Syed Othman FJ in Husdi v Public Prosecutor [1979] 2 MLJ 304.

Boys in blue got that?

In that case, the federal court judge, sitting in a criminal revision in the high court, expressed his view that the common law right of an accused to inspect the first information arises from the duty of the police to inform the accused the reason for his arrest, so as to enable the accused, if he so wishes, to explain his conduct as alleged in the first information, which, on the face of it, constitutes an offence.

By the way, the first information (or what is commonly known as the first information report – FIR) is otherwise known as the police report. It is a public document as defined by section 74 of the Evidence Act 1950 (EA).

Consequently, a person having a right to inspect the document must be given on demand a copy of it on payment of the prescribed fees as provided by section 76 of the EA. So, if A is the person named in the police report by the woman alleging rape, then A has a right to inspect the report.

He should be given, on request, a certified true copy of it on payment of the fees. A’s right to inspect is a right based on the common law which accrues right to a person to have access to a document in which he has an interest.

Such inspection, according to the federal court in Anthony Gomez v Ketua Polis Daerah Kuantan [1977] 2 MLJ24 recognising the common law right to inspect, is necessary for the protection of his interests.

Source : Malaysiakini

PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim has finally received a copy of the police report made by his accuser, almost two months after the sodomy complaint was lodged.

MCPX

The opposition leader had earlier made repeated requests for the report, which was lodged by ex-aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan on June 28.

The police however said they would provide a copy of the report only after Anwar had been charged.

But despite being charged for sodomy on Aug 7, Anwar did not get the crucial police report. Anwar’s lawyers have argued that without the report, it would be difficult for them to prepare his defence.

Last Thursday, Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar - who oversees the police - was reported as saying that Anwar should be given the police report as he is entitled to it under the law.

Anwar, who revealed that he had finally got the police report, said at a press conference today that he found yet another inconsistency in Saiful’s complaint but he did not elaborate on the matter.

“We have found there was another inconsistency in the police report that was given to us - six weeks later, (and) on the instruction of the minister,” he told reporters in Yayasan Aman building in Permatang Pauh, where the party’s election campaign office is located.

The politician, who is contesting as a PKR candidate in the Aug 26 Permatang Pauh by-election, is making a bid to return to Parliament after a 10-year hiatus as he struggled to fight the fresh sodomy charge.

When contacted, Anwar’s lawyer Sankara Nair confirmed that the legal team had received a copy of Saiful’s report at about 5pm on Friday from the police.

He however declined to provide further details on the report.

“We have no comment to make until the legal team meets and deliberates on the report.”