00:00A recent decision by the Attorney General to charge a reckless driver with murder has
00:04sparked outrage and revived a familiar question.
00:08How far can prosecutorial discretion go?
00:12In an opinion piece, retired Judge Hamid Sultan Abu Bakr says this isn't the first time that
00:18question has come up.
00:19He points to a case from his early years in practice.
00:22A young unmarried woman had been locked up for nearly five years without trial.
00:27She was being held on a murder charge.
00:30But Hamid says the facts told a different story.
00:33The woman had hidden her pregnancy from her family.
00:37She went into labor alone, gave birth in a toilet, and in shock and confusion, flushed
00:43the baby away.
00:45The body was only discovered later when her parents called in a plumber.
00:50She was arrested.
00:53Instead of being charged with infanticide, an offense that recognizes the trauma and mental
00:57state surrounding childbirth, the young girl was held for murder, which carried the death
01:03penalty.
01:04Hamid says that was not just excessive, it was a failure of justice.
01:09After meeting her at the Kajang Romance Center, he decided to act.
01:14He filed a habeas corpus application to challenge her detention.
01:18That application landed before Justice Casey Vora.
01:21And instead of brushing it aside, the judge forced the issue into open court.
01:26At the next mention, another judge confronted the deputy public prosecutor directly.
01:32Hamid recalls the judge asking, in essence, have you no shame?
01:37This woman has been in remand for five years.
01:39If this is infanticide, why is she being treated as a murderer?
01:44That same day, the charge was reduced to infanticide, and she pleaded guilty.
01:49And because she had already spent several years behind bars, the balance of her sentence ran
01:54out a few months later.
01:56For Hamid, the lesson is bigger than one case.
01:59He says prosecutorial discretion is not absolute.
02:03Just because the attorney general has the power to choose a charge does not mean that power
02:08is beyond question.
02:10And when that discretion is abused, the courts must step in.
02:14That is why he argues remedies like habeas corpus still matter.
02:18Not because they always free a person immediately, but because they can force scrutiny, expose injustice,
02:24and stop someone from becoming a forgotten prisoner.
02:27For the full argument, read Hamid Sultan Abu Bakr's opinion piece, The Forgotten Prisoner, on
02:34FMT.
Comments