PETALING JAYA: The government will probe allegations that the early closure of a bail counter at a Kuala Lumpur courthouse resulted in six accused spending the long weekend in jail.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reforms) Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said (pic) said the Legal Affairs Division will look into the matter by checking with the court administration.
“The right to bail is a fundamental and constitutional human right that the government respects without question, and any act including administrative issues that interfere with this right is viewed as flouting this cardinal principle.
“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 said when contacted Saturday (April 22).
Azalina’s comments come after it was reported that six men would be spending the long weekend in prison, as the counter that processed bail closed before its stipulated time.
The men were among 10 who claimed trial for criminal conspiracy with the intention to cheat.
The other four, however, managed to post bail in time.
Their lawyer, Alvin Tan, alleged that the bail counter had closed at 2.53pm.
This was supposedly shortly after the magistrate granted bail of RM4,000 each.
A notice at the bail counter, meanwhile, states that its operating hours were until 4.30pm.
