Charged

We brought up an interesting point of law before the Court of Appeal Putrajaya today. The issue put forward for the Court of Appeal to consider was the meaning attributed to the phrase 'charged' appearing in Section 52A of the Anti Money Laundering and Financing of Unlawful Activities Act.

We argued that a person is deemed to be charged the day he is physically brought into Court, a charge read to him and a plea recorded whereas for the prosecution, it was submitted that a person is deemed to be charged as soon as the Consent of Prosecute is issued by the Attorney General and a charge is registered.

As expected the 3 men bench agreed with the Prosecution and dismissed our clients' Appeal.

While the point of law raised may sound too simple to some, parties submitted for at least 90 minutes and the Court took about 30 minutes to deliberate.