High Court judges can review excessive sentences meted out by lower courts - Tengku Maimun

PUTRAJAYA: Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat said High Court judges can review any case if the sentences meted out by the lower court were either inappropriate under the circumstances or excessive.

Under the law, she said it was permissible for a High Court judge to review the case and make a decision accordingly.

“It depends on the respective High Court to review the cases from the lower courts.

“But if we find out from the press or any other sources that a sentence is excessive or inappropriate for the case, then it is permissible for the High Court to review the case and make an appropriate decision,” she said.

Tengku Maimun said this during a press conference after delivering her speech at the Opening of the Legal Year, 2022, held at the Palace of Justice, here, today.

Yesterday, the Selayang magistrate's court sentenced a teenage boy to 10 days in jail and RM4,000 fine for attempting to steal a mosque donation box.

Magistrate Nik Mohd Fadli Nik Azlan handed down the sentence on Daniel Iskandar, 19, after the accused pleaded guilty to the offence.

Daniel had admitted to have committed the offence at the Al Islahiah Mosque at about 11.58pm on Jan 8.

In pleading for leniency, Daniel's lawyer Azman Abdullah said it was his client's first offence and that he had repented.

The accused had also apologised to the court and the mosque saying that he committed the offence because he needed money to buy medicine for his grandfather who is diabetic.

He told the court that despite asking for help, no one had offered him any.

The charge framed under Section 380 of the Penal Code read together with Section 511 of the code carries a maximum jail term of 10 years and a fine, upon conviction.

A video showing a teenager being forcibly given a bath like a corpse at the mosque's body-washing room had went viral on social media.

Some social media users supported the mosque's officials' actions while some condemned the act saying that they should have left it to the law to decide rather than talking matters into their own hands.