KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court here has granted a two-day stay of Rumah Bonda founder Siti Bainun Ahd Razali’s trial for alleged child abuse.
Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah allowed the stay pending a decision on her bid to revise a sessions court ruling ordering her to enter her defence on two counts of child abuse.
As a result, her defence to the charges will not commence tomorrow as previously scheduled.
“I will give my decision (on the revision application) on Jan 13.
“In the interim, I will give a stay, which will affect the hearing tomorrow and Friday,” Sequerah said.
Siti Bainun is standing trial on two charges of abuse and neglect of a teenage Down Syndrome girl known as Bella at a condominium in Wangsa Maju in 2021.
She was charged under Section 31(1)(a) of the Child Act 2001 which carries a maximum jail term of 20 years or a fine of RM50,000, or both, if convicted.
Siti Bainun sought the revision on grounds that the charges were defective.
She claimed that the sessions court’s decision calling on her to enter her defence was null and void as the trial judge had failed to consider that the charges were “defective”.
Earlier today, defence counsel PG Cyril said Siti Bainun took the position that she did not know what to answer when making her defence because the charges were “defective”.
To this, Sequerah asked: “How could she have been at a complete loss during the prosecution’s case?”
Cyril affirmed that it was the defence’s stand that both charges were defective, and that was why she was seeking a revision of the sessions court order.
Meanwhile, deputy public prosecutor Nor Azizah Mohamad told the court that Siti Bainun had used the wrong mode to challenge the charges.
She said the defence should have sent a letter to the High Court to request the revision, rather than file a notice of motion.