KUALA LUMPUR: The Home Ministry will study the need for a special court on Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma) offences, says Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail.
The Home Minister said this was to expedite the legal process which has been criticised by some parties.
“We will study the need and suitability of establishing a special court, similar to special criminal courts on corruption, undocumented migrants, sexual crimes against children, human trafficking, environment and cyber crimes.
“Now, there is a need for us to consider having this special court so that the offenders don’t have to wait long as issues on bail would then arise,” he said during the ministerial explanation in the Dewan Rakyat on Wednesday (Feb 19).
This would be one of three main goals of a special committee that was established to look into the controversial law, said Saifuddin Nasution.
The minister also said another matter that would be discussed was reviewing the list of unbailable offences under Sosma.
“Under the current provision, bail is not allowed for offences under the unbailable offences with the exception under Section 13(2) which involved female, children below 18 and elderly or sick offenders.
“We will review 73 offences under the Act, which sections and offences that we can leave to the discretion of the court,” said Saifuddin Nasution.
He said the government would study the need to amend Section 30 of the Act, pertaining to detention while awaiting the completion of legal proceedings.
“Following this, a special committee will be formed to review and scrutinise the proposed improvements before tabling any amendments.
“The faster the committee comes up with conclusions, the faster we can table,” he said, adding that he expects the amendments to be tabled in the July’s parliamentary session.
Introduced in 2012 as a replacement to the Internal Security Act (ISA), Sosma was aimed at providing special measures relating to security offences for the purpose of maintaining public order and security and for related matters.
Effectively, it allows preventive detention, like the ISA, for security offences.
But unlike the ISA, it does not allow for indefinite detention without trial at the Home Minister’s discretion.
Instead, it permits detention in blocks of 28 days at a time, renewable by a court order.
