18 special courts for graft cases now open
By NST
SHAH ALAM: Eighteen special courts set up to specially hear corruption cases commenced operations in eight states yesterday.
This is expected to give a boost in the fight against graft, a National Key Results Area (NKRA) under the Government Transformation Programme (GTP).
The courts, namely special Corruption Sessions Courts and special Corruption High Courts were set up in the eight states to help speed up graft hearings nationwide.
Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu), in a media release yesterday, quoted Chief Registrar of the Federal Court Datuk Hashim Hamzah as saying the initiative was aimed at “completing the prosecution of corruption cases within a year, particularly high public interest cases”.
The states that have the special Corruption Sessions Courts are three each in Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and Johor, and one each in Perak, Negri Sembilan, Pahang, Sarawak and Sabah.
Two special High Courts are located in Kuala Lumpur and one each in Selangor and Johor.
Hashim said the commencement of the special courts would heighten the country’s aggressive fight against corruption by speedily dispensing such cases.
“Lengthy trials and appeals should be minimised as they increase the opportunity for material witnesses to go missing, evidence-tampering as well as fading of witnesses’ memory. It can also cause witnesses to lose interest in the case.
“It is quite common for a single corruption case to have as many as 20 witnesses, and lengthy processes are often seen delaying the delivery of justice. This is where the special courts come in.”
He said the special courts also had their respective judges, focusing only on corruption cases.
Hashim said speed was also crucial in corruption hearings as previous cases showed that 70 per cent of the accused were government servants.
“Government servants are suspended when charged and would only get half-pay,” he said.
The special Corruption Sessions Courts in Shah Alam/Selangor and Kuala Lumpur were immediately tasked with handling 150 cases, mostly carried forward from last year.
Last year, the normal courts had to handle 674 corruption cases brought forward from 2009, together with 446 new cases.
