Nazri: Gov’t need not apologise to Sukma
Malaysiakini
Nov 7, 2006
Beh Lih Yi

The government need not apologise to Indonesia-born Sukma Darmawan Sasmitaat Madja who was freed yesterday when a sodomy charge against him was dropped eight years after he was first hauled into court.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz said the prosecution against Sukma - who is adopted brother of ex-deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim - was made based on “the evidence available then”.

“We cannot be apologising every time we drop a charge against someone. This is not the system here, (and) not even a communist country like China (would do that),” Nazri said in his winding-up on the Budget 2007 debate in the Dewan Rakyat today.

Nazri was responding to requests from opposition politicians Lim Kit Siang (DAP-Ipoh Timor) and Kamaruddin Jaffar (PAS-Tumpat) who have urged the government and the Attorney-General’s Chamber to apologise to Sukma.

Confession made under duress

Sukma, 45, was acquitted and discharged after the prosecution told the court yesterday that it would not be in the public interest to proceed with the trial since Sukma had served most of the six months’ jail term.

It added that justice would not be served if the case was further prolonged as Sukma was arrested eight years ago.

The Indonesian businessman was charged for allowing Anwar to sodomise him in 1988 at the latter’s residence in Kuala Lumpur’s Damansara.

Sukma was to be tried again yesterday after the Court of Appeal on June 14 this year described his guilty plea as “manifestly unsafe” because of suppression of material facts which could have proven his innocence.

The accused had claimed that his confession was signed under duress after he was severely tortured by the police. The appellate court subsequently quashed Sukma's conviction and ordered a re-trial by the lower court.

Upholding 'rule of law'

At the Parliament’s lobby later, Nazri, who is also de facto law minister, argued that the government had to uphold the ‘rule of law’.

He said that there was nothing in the legislation which “requires the government or its agency to tender an apology when a charge is dropped”.

Defending the prosecution’s decision, Nazri said there was no point in continuing with the trial since there was medical evidence showing that Sukma was not sodomised.

The medical evidence however was not taken into consideration by the lower court, a decision which was lambasted by the appellate court in its ruling later.

Nazri said the lower court’s judge had made a “human error” in making his decision.

The minister also said it was not for Attorney-General’s Chambers to ascertain whether Sukma’s confession was valid or otherwise when it decided to charge him eight years ago.

IPCMC bill under construction

Meanwhile, Nazri also announced wide-ranging amendments to the Penal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code, which will be enforced on Jan 1 next year.

Teresa Kok (DAP-Seputeh) has asked yesterday as to why the amendments were not enforced despite that they had been passed by Parliament in September and gazetted on Oct 5.

Nazri said the delay was due to the community service structure - a new punishment introduced under the amendments for young offenders - not being put in place after the amendments were gazetted.

“Everything is okay now,” he said. He expressed confidence that the government and the police are ready to enforce the changes to the laws.

However, he did not elaborate on how the ‘community service’ punishment would be carried out, giving only one example that it could be in the form of placing the young offenders in old folks homes.

In a related development, the minister said the Attorney-General’s Chamber was still drafting the much-awaited Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) bill.

He said the AG’s Chamber has met with relevant agencies to discuss the matter.