High Court okays Haziq’s six-day remand

KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court maintained the six-day remand order for Haziq Abdullah Abdul Aziz, who was arrested to assist police investigation into the sex video scandal allegedly linked to a federal minister.

The High Court, however, reduced the remand order for five others arrested related to the same case, from six days to four days.

Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah, in his ruling, said that as the five were being investigated only under Section 292 of the Penal Code and Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 – as opposed to Haziq who was being investigated under Section 377B of the Penal Code – the maximum remand period that could be imposed at a time was four days.

The judge said magistrate Namirah Hanum Mohamed Albaki, who issued the remand order on Monday, had erred in issuing a six-day remand order for the five.

The legal teams for Haziq and the five other suspects earlier filed a revision to the remand order based on two grounds, one being that the magistrate had issued the remand order without seeing the investigation diaries.

Lawyer Ramesh Sivakumar, who was representing Haziq and four others, said that no documents were tendered during the remand hearing on Monday.

“The magistrate had given the remand order without satisfying herself that there was reasonable suspicion that justified the arrests as required by law.

“No documents were tendered during the proceedings or within our sight; we did not see it so we take it that no such documents were tendered to the magistrate,” said Ramesh.

Another reason, said Ramesh, was that the magistrate did not review the remand details for each suspect individually.

“It is not possible to arrest more than two people under Section 377B of the Penal Code.

“Going by the material (available) in the public domain, it is a known fact that two individuals were involved, (so we) don’t know why the rest should be investigated under the section,” he said.

This was echoed by A. Ashok, who was representing one of the suspects.

Deputy public prosecutor Mohd Radzi Abdul Razak then informed the court that the documents required had been submitted online, along with the remand application.

DPP Mohd Radzi also said that as the investigation was still ongoing, it was too early to separate the remand order individually.

The six, including Haziq, were originally on remand until Saturday.

Only Haziq’s remand order will last until July 20 while the remand order for the other five will expire today.

Under Section 377B of the Penal Code, those found guilty of committing carnal intercourse against the order of nature can be jailed up to 20 years and shall be liable to whipping.

Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 provides a maximum fine of RM50,000 or one-year maximum jail or both if guilty, while Section 292 of the Penal Code, for disseminating pornographic materials, carries a maximum three-year jail or fine or both.

On Tuesday, police took in another three in relation to this case. They include Perak PKR leader Farhash Wafa Salvador Rizal Mubarak, the political secretary to Anwar Ibrahim.