PUTRAJAYA: An Indonesian girl has won her freedom after spending two years in prison after being arrested and later convicted by a magistrates’ court for two different offences.
A three-member Court of Appeal bench chaired by Hanipah Farikullah said there had been a miscarriage of justice due to non-compliance by the authorities with the provisions of the Child Act.
The bench, which also consisted of Ahmad Nasfy Yasin and Nordin Hassan, allowed the appeal of the girl, who turned 18 in July, and quashed her conviction and the cumulative jail sentences of five years and five months.
The jail terms had come about as she was unable to pay a RM65,000 fine imposed by the lower court.
The appellate court also set aside the decision of the High Court which dismissed her revision application early this year.
Lawyer A Srimurugan, who represented the girl, said she will be released from Kajang prison and handed over to the immigration department for deportation.
“The Indonesian Embassy is preparing her travel documents before she can return to Bandung,” he told FMT.
The lawyer had earlier submitted that his client was a child at the time of her arrest and conviction.
Deputy public prosecutor Zaki Asyraf Zubir appeared for the prosecution.
The case came to light after a human trafficking watch in Indonesia contacted Srimurugan.
Earlier this year, the girl filed an appeal to challenge the High Court ruling which affirmed the magistrate’s decision to send her to jail for entering the country illegally and managing a gambling den.
Prior to that she had obtained leave of the Court of Appeal to challenge the High Court decision as she was required to do since the case originated from a subordinate court.
The question which the Court of Appeal was asked to determine was whether the magistrate in Kuala Kubu Bharu had the jurisdiction to hear the case as it involved a child.
The girl had pleaded guilty in July 2020 to 13 charges of having custody and control of gaming machines at premises in Bukit Sentosa, Hulu Selangor.
She was fined RM5,000 or five months’ jail in default on each charge. She was also sentenced to a month’s jail for an immigration offence.
Court documents show that the girl and her mother entered Malaysia in early 2020. The mother left four months ago.