High Court maintains Haziq's remand at six days, five others' cut to four

KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court has reduced the remand order for five suspects arrested in relation to the sex video scandal allegedly linked to a federal minister from six for four days.

However, the six-day remand order for Haziq Abdullah Abdul Aziz stays.

Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah said on Wednesday (July 17) that Magistrate Namirah Hanum Mohamed Albaki had erred in issuing a six-day remand order for the five.

Sequerah, in his ruling, said the five were being investigated only under Section 292 of the Penal Code and and Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, where the maximum remand period that could be imposed at a time was four days.

"Meanwhile the other suspect (Haziq) is investigated under Section 377B of the Penal Code (as well) and his remand order remains (at six days)," he said.

The legal teams for Haziq and the other suspects had earlier filed a revision to the remand order based on two grounds.

Lawyer Ramesh Sivakumar said that one of the grounds was that the magistrate had given the remand order without satisfying herself that there was a reasonable suspicion that justified the arrests as required by law.

The second, he said, was that the magistrate did not review the remand details for each suspect individually.

The five suspects' remand order will now last until Thursday (July 18).

Haziq, who is former Santubong PKR Youth chief, became known after confessing to being the other individual in a series of sex videos released recently.