Early KL court bail counter closure for Raya cause six to spend time in jail?

SHAH ALAM - Putrajaya has ordered an investigation into allegations that the early closure of a bail counter at a Kuala Lumpur courthouse led to six suspects spending a long weekend in jail.

According to a report, Law and institutional reform minister Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said that she had instructed the legal affairs division under her ministry to probe the claim.

The government acknowledges the right to bail as a crucial and constitutional human right that should be upheld at all times," she was reported as saying in FMT.

Any action, including administrative problems, that obstructs this right is seen as a violation of this essential principle, she added.

“If the claims made by the accused’s lawyer are true, this certainly needs to be reviewed and corrected to ensure administrative errors such as this do not repeat,” she was further quoted.

On Thursday, FMT reported that six men would be spending the ‘long weekend’ in prison, since the counter which process bail had closed earlier than usual.

They were said to be among the 10 who claimed trial for criminal conspiracy with the intention to cheat. The four others managed to post bail in time.

Their lawyer, Alvin Tan was reported as saying that the bail counter had shut down at 2.53pm, shortly after the magistrate had authorised bail of RM4,000 each.

Tan further said that there was a notice at the bail counter indicating that it should operate until 4.30pm.