Here....Learn YOUR RIGHTS
I’ve been asked by some of my friends recently to blog about the law like other law students do. Although I find it perfectly understable for law students to blog about the laws governing them, I often abstain from doing so for a number of reasons. Perhaps the most compelling reason is that in this country some people of major influence only want to hear what they like to hear and if you don’t speak (or blog) in the same manner, serious repercussions may await you! So, without going further, I will end the matter there. But, there are quite a lot of enthusiastic law students out there who have and will blog about the law inter alia Weng Tchung and Lay Hun and you can access their blog through my blog list located to the right of the shoulders of my page.
However, without dissapointing you, my readers, from time to time, I will make an exception to the general rule about not blogging about the law provided that I feel the post will bring some substantial benefit to the lay person sitting in the (not so) Rapid KL bus. Therefore, here, I will attempt to furnish you with the rights that you have upon an arrest by the police.
Remember these acronyms for they may (or may not) serve you well in times of need : GLS 24 (G- grounds of arrest, L- Legal Representation, S- Right to remain silent, 24- the arrested person shall be brought before a Magistrate within 24 hours)
1. Article 5(3) of the Federal Constitution: Where a person is arrested he shall be informed as soon as may be of the grounds of his arrest and shall be allowed to consult and be defended by a legal practitioner of his choice.
(Therefore, if you ever have the misfortune of being arrested, you have the right to be told of the grounds of your arrest as provided by Article 5. You also may consult a lawyer of your choice and it is clear from the decision in OCCI Kedah- Perlis v Ooi Ah Phua, that if the police had refrained you from consulting your lawyer the ‘onus is upon the police to prove that they are reasonable in doing so’.)
2. Article 5(4) of the Federal Constitution: Where a person is arrested and not released he shall without unreasonable delay, and in any case within twenty-four hours (excluding the time of any necessary journey) be produced before a magistrate and shall not be further detained in custody without the magistrate's authority:
Provided that this Clause shall not apply to the arrest or detention of any person under the existing law relating to restricted residence, and all the provisions of this Clause shall be deemed to have been an integral part of this Article as from Merdeka Day.
(Article 5(4) is self explanatory. If you have had your rights infringed it is important that you know that you may seek to apply for a writ of habeas corpus to set yourself free from this illegal detention)
3. S.113 of the CPC: You have a right to remain silent after a caution has been administered (also self explanatory)
Hope this helps! This post was written at 2.15 am on 17/9/2007 mostly out of memory and therefore out of sheer weariness there may be some minor errors here and there though I believe in substance is it correct.
(Btw, as far as I know, to all my friends who watch legal based series like Ally McBeal, Boston Legal etc, there is no such right as a right to a phone call!Well, at least none provided by the law in Malaysia!)
However, without dissapointing you, my readers, from time to time, I will make an exception to the general rule about not blogging about the law provided that I feel the post will bring some substantial benefit to the lay person sitting in the (not so) Rapid KL bus. Therefore, here, I will attempt to furnish you with the rights that you have upon an arrest by the police.
Remember these acronyms for they may (or may not) serve you well in times of need : GLS 24 (G- grounds of arrest, L- Legal Representation, S- Right to remain silent, 24- the arrested person shall be brought before a Magistrate within 24 hours)
1. Article 5(3) of the Federal Constitution: Where a person is arrested he shall be informed as soon as may be of the grounds of his arrest and shall be allowed to consult and be defended by a legal practitioner of his choice.
(Therefore, if you ever have the misfortune of being arrested, you have the right to be told of the grounds of your arrest as provided by Article 5. You also may consult a lawyer of your choice and it is clear from the decision in OCCI Kedah- Perlis v Ooi Ah Phua, that if the police had refrained you from consulting your lawyer the ‘onus is upon the police to prove that they are reasonable in doing so’.)
2. Article 5(4) of the Federal Constitution: Where a person is arrested and not released he shall without unreasonable delay, and in any case within twenty-four hours (excluding the time of any necessary journey) be produced before a magistrate and shall not be further detained in custody without the magistrate's authority:
Provided that this Clause shall not apply to the arrest or detention of any person under the existing law relating to restricted residence, and all the provisions of this Clause shall be deemed to have been an integral part of this Article as from Merdeka Day.
(Article 5(4) is self explanatory. If you have had your rights infringed it is important that you know that you may seek to apply for a writ of habeas corpus to set yourself free from this illegal detention)
3. S.113 of the CPC: You have a right to remain silent after a caution has been administered (also self explanatory)
Hope this helps! This post was written at 2.15 am on 17/9/2007 mostly out of memory and therefore out of sheer weariness there may be some minor errors here and there though I believe in substance is it correct.
(Btw, as far as I know, to all my friends who watch legal based series like Ally McBeal, Boston Legal etc, there is no such right as a right to a phone call!Well, at least none provided by the law in Malaysia!)
posted by Innerflame7 at 2:28 AM
8 Comments:
hello! nope, i don't think we do know each other. :) but we CAN get to know each other. ;)
but having said that, well done for putting this up and enlightening people. just a point of clarification, the recent amendments to the CPC (not yet in force) provide for a phone call for the arrested person to let his family and/or lawyer know.
the amendments also removes the caution requirement under s 113. what now happens to the right to silence? i think it still exists - part of the larger privilege against self-incrimination.
the issue of choice of legal practitioner was brought up in sim kee guan's case - which i still find somewhat ironically amusing. :P
Congratulations on your success in the CLP :)!
I hope that you will blog more about law too because I like the way you express your opinion on certain issues. ;)Btw, I am just wondering if you are interested to be a tutor for EU Law? Or do you know anyone who is interested to teach EU Law? My friends and I are urgently looking for a tutor for EU because my lecturer said that as long as we can get a new tutor, he is willing to change our current EU tutor ;)
petrina:
1. Of course we can get to know each other!
2.s1(2): This Act (CPC AMENDMENT ACT) comes into operation on a date to be appointed by the Minister under subsection 1(2) of the Criminal Procedure Code (Amendment) Act 2006.
Apprently from what I've heard it has recently been put in place.
3.I'm quite sure that there is still NO right to a phone call although the right to legal representation is preserved. If I'm wrong, you're welcome to point me to the relevant section of the Act.
4.It is quite clear that the amendment was done to PRESERVE the right to silence. The amendment to s.113 was put in place to prevent the abuse of detainees by the police with the view of obtaining evidence.
The new amendment provides:
"Admission of statements in evidence
113. (1) Except as provided in this section, no statement
made by any person to a police officer in the course of a
police investigation made under this Chapter shall be used
in evidence.
As a conclusion, even if evidence is obtained from the detainee it will not be available to the DPP as evidence at trial. It was hoped that this would decrease the possibility of police manhandling the detainees to obtain information.
Unfortunately, what this has done is also to remove the effect of an admission by the accuse. Surely, this is a big oversight on the part of the legislators? The multitude of problems which may arise from this amendment may haunt us in years to come!
(I think Weng has blogged about this before)
Weng: Thanks! And send my regards to jamie
NLH: haha...it is NOT a legal blog and wasn't intended to be one. Ur proposition sounds interesting but I'm starting work in Oct n I'm not sure if i have enough time to give my fullest attention to your class.Furthermore, I'm afraid I lack the requisite experience. But, if you are still interested despite all these inadequacies you are welcome to contact me.
Thank you!
No problem...actually, we are not really expecting an experienced lecturer...as long as we can understand whatever he/ she is saying in class will be sufficient. I believe you will do a better job than the current tutor I have now. Like what my lecturer said, we are not looking for a lecturer, but a mentor to guide us only. And about the time factor, actually you only need to tutor us for one class a week, its on Thursdays 8.30 to 10.00 pm. Can I have your e-mail add so I can contact you personally to let you know more about it?
heavenly_shower@yahoo.com
tis is an inactive account but i will be looking for your email and send u thru the right account...
the last time i put my email add in the open i ended up getiing spammed!
so intro urself in the email..
tx
Congrats on your success on your CLP! Wow, that makes you the top 9% of the present generation of legal brains in the country.
tx a lot for the compliments fishtail...cant blog tht much coz im doing litigation work which means...helluva time in courts n loads of preparatory work
Post a Comment
<< Home