On March 5th, Wan Nadira Fazlinda and myself have attended a court trial held here, in Shah Alam itself. There, we got the help of one Officer Marzuki who led us to courtroom number 6-where a trial about armed robbery was about to be held. This is what I have extracted from the trial.
The purpose of the hearing is to lower the amount of bail needed to free the convicted. The convicted is an Indian male, ranging in his mid-thirties. The trial, which was under the jurisdiction of the honourable judge Hasbi Binti Hasan, started promptly at 12.00pm.
The right side of the courtroom was covered with the convicted's family members. The children were unallowed to enter as it will disrupt the court's procedures. The trial starts with a Malay to Indian translator of the convicted's particulars, the charges and punishment if he is found to be guilty. This may be to avoid any type of miscommunication later on. The convicted agrees to the charges.
The convicted was a taxi driver, whereby his taxi was rented from Uptown Ace. He has a wife and four children (ages 11, 10, 3, and 2) He is the primary source of income for his whole family. This includes his relatives, uncles and aunties. His previous salary was RM 1400 monthly and this was uncertain as it depends on the amount of customers he gets. Uptown Ace has now taken away his taxi and this leaves his whole family in despair. They are also living in a rented house.
His lawyer explains to the judge that on the day, the convicted was driving his taxi and has picked up a passenger from the area of Templer to the destination, Prima Selayang. The passenger has no money but promises that his friend will pay for him when he arrives at his destination. The convicted naively agrees and therefore gets himself into trouble with 7 Myanmarian men that were in the house. Upset and desperate for money, the convicted took two handphones and took out a fruit knife for his protection from the Myanmarian men. At the same time, the Police arrived and the Myanmarian men fled the scene.
His lawyer pled that his client was just at the wrong place at the wrong time and only took the handphones as a means for the men to pay him. The fruit knife was also only meant as a protection from seven men. His lawyer also used the tactic of gathering all of his client's family members to help pleed his case. The judge choose to reduce the amount of the bail to RM 6000 whereby the family members must come up with in order to free the convicted out of prison.
The next trial is on 14th April.
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