PUTRAJAYA, Nov 8 — The Court of Appeal has dismissed a British woman’s bid for leave to appeal against a Magistrate’s Court’s refusal to immediately transfer her drug trafficking case to the High Court.
A three-member bench comprising Justices Datuk Wong Kian Kheong, Datuk Hayatul Akmal Abdul Aziz and Datuk Meor Hashimi Abdul Hamid yesterday allowed the prosecution’s preliminary objection, ruling that Deishanei Ciara Hall’s leave-to-appeal application was incompetent.
Justice Wong, in delivering the court’s decision, said the Court of Appeal had no jurisdiction to hear Hall’s application against the High Court’s refusal to revise the Magistrate’s Court’s ruling. He noted that there was no decision from either court under Section 50(1) and (2) of the Courts of Judicature Act 1964.
He added that Section 41A of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 is a mandatory provision, and the Magistrate cannot automatically transfer a case to the High Court without a chemist’s report and a requisition from the public prosecutor.
Justice Wong, however, urged the prosecution to expedite the chemist’s report so that the case could proceed without delay.
Hall, 21, was charged at the Sepang Magistrate’s Court in April with trafficking 19,076 grammes of cannabis at the narcotics office in Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) at about 12.15am on April 12.
The Magistrate’s Court had in August dismissed Hall’s application for an immediate transfer to the High Court, as the chemist’s report was still pending. Her lawyers later sought a revision at the High Court under Section 325 of the Criminal Procedure Code, but it was dismissed, prompting her to seek leave to appeal to the Court of Appeal.
During yesterday’s proceedings, Deputy Public Prosecutor Abdul Malik Ayob raised a preliminary objection, saying Hall’s application was incompetent because the earlier court decisions were not final and did not dispose of her rights.
Her lawyer, Michelle Tan Yung Yin, argued that the case should be promptly transferred so an early trial date could be fixed.
Yesterday’s ruling departed from a previous decision in PP v Marwan Ismail, which held that such cases must be immediately transmitted to the High Court. — Bernama
