Sunday, September 14, 2008

Dasyat Sangat Ke Hukuman Tu?




More about the "ULAT KUTU". The moment it was on Buletin Utama, I received numerous sms regarding the sentence that I gave.

Jual tiket pun kena penjara 11 bulan?” (ni paling kelakar)

Waa, you really have no mercy eh.

Was it you who delivered the sentence? Bunyi macam nama kau aje” (dah nama macam aku, siape lagi? hahaha)

Which section of the Road Transport Act did you use?

And many others.

I began to reanalyze my sentence (buat kali ke berapa puluh ribu aku pun tak tau). Was it too harsh? Or is it too lenient? I doubt the latter option because no one in the right frame of mind would say that it is lenient. It is a harsh sentence. No, it is actually a deterrent sentence.

There has been no appeal just yet. The Indonesian chap has 14 days to file his appeal. If he does, then I will have to write my legal reasoning for such sentence. Till then, I’ll just explain in a nutshell the reason for such a deterrent sentence.

The main reason why I gave ONLY RM10,000 is because the maximum sentence for that offence is RM50,000. Since he pleaded guilty, this is the “FIRST” time he is being charged and by pleading guilty he has saved the Court’s, witnesses’ and prosecution’s valuable trial time, I considered about RM40,000 discount for him.

(Mahkamah tak kira berapa juta kali you pernah buat kesalahan tu kalau you tak pernah disabit salah. So even though dia dah jual tiket tu dari 10 tahun dulu, since ini “first” time dia kena tangkap and mengaku salah, Mahkamah consider ini “FIRST” time dia buat kesalahan ni.)

In other words, you are only a criminal IF, and only IF you get caught!!!

In default of paying RM10,000, I ordered that he be sentenced to 11 months imprisonment. This is still under my jurisdiction. (See S. 283 Criminal Procedure Code if I am not mistaken.)

Why fine him so much? (The jail sentence is only if he defaults in paying his fine and it should also commensurate the amount of the fine.) Why a deterrent sentence for him? Kesianlah his wife, kid and mother!

The reason is simple. This guy has been reaping profits upon illegal sales of bus tickets. He has been taking Advantage at other people’s Disadvantage. Ini satu penzaliman ke atas orang awam! You go to the ticket counter and the normal price bus ticket is sold out. It could be that he had already bought all of the remaining available tickets. Then, when you think that all hopes are gone for you to balik kampung, “he” comes along and offers you a bus ticket at a MUCH HIGHER PRICE. Like it or not, you would probably buy “his” overprice ticket so that you can balik kampung. Raye beb! Sape tanak balik kampung? Elok-elok nak balik kampung dah kena “pau” tak pasal-pasal macam ni.

Is this not cruel?

On top of that, I thought that this could be a good benchmark since this is the first case this year. It ought to really scare other touts to look for other jobs. This should serve as a deterrent warning to others that the Kuala Lumpur Traffic Magistrate Courts really mean business when it comes to this sort of cases. The accused was also a foreigner (from Acheh) and has legal documentation. He could have looked for other legal jobs instead of this.

(Ramai giler press ada masa jatuh hukum. Terpaksa aku tangguh sebentar untuk check balik semua procedure sebelum jatuh hukum. Hahaha. )

Jadi, atas nama public interest and considering RM 40,000 discount yang aku include, kira ok la tuh hukuman ni…

Blog adjourned!

4 obiter dictum:

odah. said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
odah. said...

walaupun this will sound/looks agak lame (& no intention to mengampu), I haven't been reading the papers as of late, so I only knew of this thru your blog post (may be i shud read more papers especially the court section part)

agak ganas ye fine RM10,000 for a ulat-ulat bas..tapi baguslah, atleast they cannot mess with the law and run away with it.

excuse my english/b.m yang agak tak proper..

Anonymous said...

Ok.Hv been ur silence reader all this while.tp mmg ptt pn dia kena.hm.kt jb larkin terminal pn berleluasa.until today.tiket to kl yg supposedly rm25 je tp depa naikkn smapi rm50.tp masalahnye derang ni jual kt dlm kaunter gaks..or kt luar kaunter letak meja then jual...kire camne ni ye?sbb tak ptt aa depa jual harga sebegitu mahal.haih...tensen2

two_one said...

odah.: hahaha, baca papers online je... kurang gambar tapi cerita same je.

anon:kat sana takda tempat nak complaint ke? kita perlu tindaskan penindasan!! hehehe