KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court has awarded RM274,375 in damages to lawyer Siti Kasim and her client over unlawful raid at her house and her subsequent wrongful imprisonment in June 2018.
Judicial Commissioner Arziah Mohammed Apandi, in her decision, said the police raid on Siti's home on June 21, 2018, was conducted without any intent to first contact the occupants.
Calling the facts "undisputed", the judicial commissioner said that one of the police officers involved admitted to not reading the police report in the case before the raid was conducted.
"Any entry onto private premises without consent of any legal authority constitutes trespass," she said.
In another incident two days later, Siti was arrested while performing her professional duties despite the police having no basis to detain her, JC Arziah said.
"The defendants' conduct demonstrates reckless indifference to the plaintiff's constitutional rights," she said here on Friday (Dec 19).
The court then ordered the government to pay RM120,625 in general damages to Siti and RM53,750 to Anis.
Both plaintiffs were also awarded joint exemplary damages of RM100,000.
The court also granted them RM50,000 in costs.
In their statement of claim, the plaintiffs said that Anis, who had sought help and refuge at Siti's home over family issues, had stayed at Siti's home on June 21, 2018, as the lawyer was away on a conference.
According to court documents, nine policemen in plain clothes (all named in the lawsuit), had entered Siti's home by breaking her grille and main door.
The plaintiffs claimed that the police had unlawfully taken Anis, who hid in the bathroom, to the Kajang police headquarters.
On June 23, 2018, Siti went to the Kajang IPD after finding out that Anis had been illegally detained there.
She claimed she was not allowed access to her client and around 11pm, she was detained by the police on grounds that she had kidnapped Anis and obstructed the police from carrying out their duty.
The police applied for a remand but it was rejected by the Magistrate.
On Jan 29, 2021, Siti and Anis filed the legal action through a writ of summons.
They named 30 defendants including 22 police officers involved in the incident.
They also named former chief of Selangor police crime investigation department Datuk Fadzil Ahmat, former Kajang Hospital director Dr Md Fikri Abu Bakar, Kajang Hospital, the police, the Inspector-General of Police, the Home Minister, the Health Minister and the government.
In today's proceedings, Federal Counsel Anis Najwa Nazari appeared for the defendants while lawyer Surendra Ananth represented the plaintiffs.
