Ive just finished reading a book by Vijayandran Thanigasalam with the title “No Intention To Kill: A True Story”. It is about a case which was been given to Vijay. Basically its a murder case. The accused was an indonesian maid with the name Herlina Trisnawati. Basically this book provide you with an overview of a court session and procedure of attaining justice in Malaysia. It makes me understand more about the judiciary system alone. From what ive learned through my foundation of law, the highest court in Malaysia is the federal court, under it is the court of appeal, and then the high court followed by the session court and magistrate. Basically, the federal court, court of appeal and the high court is the superior court in Malaysia.
The most fascinating fact was that, Vijay have succesfully doubted the case brought by the deputy pulic prosecutor, through an error made by them, whereby the DPP failed to produce one important witness which was the doctor. The doctor was basically fetched from a nearby clinic to pronounce Soon Lay Chuan as dead. This information is attained trough a witness which was Edmond, but unfotunately the doctor was not produced to testify about that matter. So according to law this evident is inadmissible, because it is considered as a hearsay evident. Fortunately, Herlina escaped from the death sentence eventhough the circumstantial evidence proved that Herlina was guilty. So, Herlina was convicted under section 326 of the penal code. The federal constitution itself did provide us with the right to be heard in article 135 and article 5. So Herlina faced all the 3 superior court. At last she was free from death sentence. So below is what press wrote about this case.
Wednesday March 12, 2008
FEDERAL COURT REDUCES CHARGE AGAINST INDONESIAN
PUTRAJAYA: A 26-year-old Indonesian maid was overjoyed after the Federal Court changed her manslaughter charge for causing her employer’s death to one of grievous hurt using a dangerous weapon.
Herlina Trisnawati, dressed in a floral printed yellow baju kebaya, clasped her hands and let out a soft cry of relief and thanked her counsel T. Vijayandran after learning she would be released in two months since her incarceration since 2001.
Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Justice Richard Malanjum and Federal Court judges Justice Arifin Zakaria and Abdul Aziz Mohammad unanimously ruled that the manslaughter charge against Herlina Trisnawati could not be sustained and gave her a 10-year jail term from the date of arrest.
“There is no evidence to say that the accused (Herlina) had caused the death of the deceased. The injuries could have been caused by a fall,” said Justice Malanjum, who dismissed the prosecution’s appeal against the Court of Appeal’s decision to substitute her murder charge to one of manslaughter.
However, he added that the judges were satisfied that there was sufficient circumstantial evidence to show that Herlina must have inflicted injuries on her employer, Soon Lay Chuan’s neck using a weapon.
On Nov 4, 2004, Herlina, from Surabaya, was convicted by the Shah Alam High Court of murdering 32-year-old Soon in Subang Jaya on Aug 14, 2001 at 3pm.
A year later, the Court of Appeal overturned the High Court’s decision and substituted it with a manslaughter charge instead.
During mitigation yesterday, Vijayandran told the court that Herlina, who had suffered constant physical and verbal abuse by Soon prior to the incident, had no reason to kill her employer.
He said Herlina had come here to earn a decent living and support her family in Indonesia.
Justice Malanjum then retorted: “She must have suffered from a battered maid syndrome.”
