Court dismisses guilty plea by Acacia's stalker

SHAH ALAM - The magistrate's court here today dismissed a guilty plea by a part-time event management consultant who was charged with stalking a female photographer by repeatedly harassing her through three communications on his Twitter account.

Magistrate Sasha Diana Sabtu decided this after allowing a preliminary objection by the prosecution against the guilty plea by Mohamad Safiq Rosli, 37.

Sasha Diana said the court dismissed Mohamad Safiq’s guilty plea on grounds of insanity as raised by the prosecution.

"The (guilty) plea by the accused cannot be accepted. I consider it as claim trial,” said the magistrate, who then set Jan 17 to hear the case.

Three prosecution witnesses will be called to testify, including the victim Acacia Mardiana Daud, 31, who is expected to testify via video conference.

Earlier, Deputy Public Prosecutor Zilfinaz Abbas requested to proceed with the trial of the case even though the accused had pleaded guilty to the charge, which he considered conditional.

He said the psychiatric report proved the accused was not sane when he committed the offence, but it was not by Section 84 of the Penal Code.

The law states that nothing is an offence which is done by a person who, at the time of doing it, by reason of unsound mind, is incapable of knowing the nature of the act, or that he is doing what is either wrong or contrary to law.

"The accused must fulfil the sanity factor according to the law and sanity in the medical report to be used in the guilty plea. The medical report by Hospital Bahagia Ulu Kinta, Perak, is only a health examination regarding sanity, the sanity examination under the law is not answered.

"The only way to prove sanity according to the law is to go through a full trial," he said.

Lawyer Fithril Hakim Ab Jalil, representing Mohamad Safiq, argued that justice cannot be served if the client is kept in prison due to his mental state.

"The prosecution knew about the mental state of the accused when they stated that this case should be brought to trial. The client will continue to be in prison and there will be no justice for him if he remains there," he added.

Mohamad Safiq was the first individual charged with the offence under Section 507A)(1) of the Penal Code.

He had pleaded not guilty when the charge was first read out to him last Aug 10. On the same day, the court also allowed the prosecution’s request to refer the accused to the Forensic Psychiatric Unit of Ulu Kinta Hospital for observation.

However, he changed his plea to guilty when the case came up for mentioned last Dec 15.

He was charged with repeatedly harassing Acacia through the Twitter application under the account name "@sopert99" by sending three communications which expressed his feelings for the woman on her Twitter account "@ShaFoShizzle" which was read at a house here.

This was despite him knowing that the act was likely to cause, distress, fear or alarm to the woman.

The offence was allegedly committed between 1.40 am last July 15 and 5.58 pm on July 21.

He faced imprisonment for up to three years or with a fine or both if found guilty. - BERNAMA