I read with shock that the Attorney-General, Gani Patail, is reviewing the charges made against Associate Professor Azmi Shahrom under the Sedition Act, 1948. This review is being made AFTER Azmi was charged in court, an act that is very much unprecedented.
For a person with no formal legal training, I recall that only details of the charges can be amended, but charges cannot be dropped once arraignment has been made.
Gani’s act incurred the wrath of former Attorney-General Abu Talib Othman. Gani’s act, according to Abu Talib, tantamount to an admission of injustice and the lack of transparency on his (Gani) part when making the charges under the Sedition Act. This, said Abu Talib, is what the A-G needs to explain.
Abu Talib also reminded that prosecuting an accused is not to persecute, but to provide. Justice to both the accused and the victims affected by the acts of the accused.
I do not know for what reason or reasons is Gani Patail reviewing the charges, but if what Abu Talib Othman had said above is right, then it only underscores my previous opinion that the Attorney-General is a useless person. Now he can join the rank of Aziz Bari, the self-proclaimed constitutional “expert” in getting his fees back from wherever he read law aeons ago. With that money, he could enrol in a law degree course at the Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Tamil Simpang Lima in Klang and be at par with another idiot called Charles Santiago.
If Abu Talib’s view of Gani Patail is inaccurate, then I believe that the latter is being pressured by someone in the government. If this is the case, then the government owes an explanation to the people.
Either way, Gani Patail is still useless for being spineless and for not knowing the mechanisms of the legal system.
SeaDemon Says 