Prosecuted after 15 years..............

[PainRack]

http://www.todayonline.com/articles/237245.asp

The 15-year legal lag
Appeals court calls for 'coherent' explanation

Leong Wee Keat
weekeat@mediacorp.com.sg

FIFTEEN years ago, he committed a crime – one he was made to pay for only last year, after he had succeeded in staying out of further trouble with the law and was building a life with a new family.
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Just why Yunani Abdul Hamid's case was not pursued for 15 years surprised Justice V K Rajah, who called on the prosecution and Yunani's lawyer for a "coherent explanation" at yesterday's appeal hearing.
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Last November, Yunani Abdul Hamid, 33, was jailed nine years and given six strokes of the cane for an offence he had committed on Aug 12, 1992.
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Yunani, then 18, had been introduced by colleague Abdul Aziz Idros to a supplier of cannabis. That fateful day, Yunani asked Abdul Aziz for help to transport the drug out of the container port at which they were working. As they were leaving, they were stopped for a routine check and the cannabis discovered.
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The pair fled – but Yunani turned himself in to police hours later. He was detained for four months, before being given a discharge not amounting to an acquittal.
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Since then, Yunani had stayed out of trouble with the law, noted the district judge who sentenced him last year.
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He resumed working for the port authority, gained custody of his 10-year-old son, planned to re-marry and even bought a flat to accommodate his fiance and her three children from a previous marriage. When he was re-arrested in April last year, Yunani lost custody of his son.'
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At the district court hearing last year, the deputy public prosecutor had said the delay in prosecuting the case was due to Abdul Aziz being on the run for 15 years. The latter was finally arrested on April 10, 2007, and after being implicated by him, Yunani was picked up hours later. Abdul Aziz was jailed 12 years and given eight strokes of the cane for drug trafficking.
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But Justice Rajah appeared unsatisfied with this explanation yesterday, saying: "It seems the matter was treated mechanically by the prosecution and defence counsel."
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He was also concerned enough to ask the Law Society for a lawyer for Yunani, who was not represented. Mr Abraham Vergis volunteered on a pro bono basis. The appeal was adjourned to March 28.
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Justice Rajah called Yunani's case "more serious" than another similar appeal he had heard recently. Last October, the judge had slashed businessman's five-year jail term to just two days, in a cheating and forgery case.
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In a written judgement released last week, Justice Rajah slammed authorities after Randy Chan Kum Hong was hauled back to court last July to face charges related to a scam for which he had already been jailed for nine months in 2003.
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Justice Rajah said the sloppy police investigations were unfair to Chan, though he deserved to be punished for his crimes. The judge noted that the mechanism that resulted in the unfortunate oversight had since been rectified.

Badly needs statue of limitations here..........

[ArmorPierce]

Oh wow, with how flustered the judge seemed and shocked that he has been allowed to walk around the civilized society I was thinking that he murdered some one. Then it turns out he was caught transporting weed and getting 9 years for it 15 years after the fact... a crime he committed when he was a boy...

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

And we keep raising the salaries for the top civil servants....

[Oni Koneko Damien]

Well I'm sure this jail time will teach him never to do that again and become an upstanding member of society, keeping a job, raising a family, getting a home...

...oh wait.

[Einhander Sn0m4n]

Okay, who's the cuntface up for reelection?

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Okay, who's the cuntface up for reelection?

Nah, Lee Kuan Yew will always be reelected, by hook or crook.

[PainRack]

Oh wow, with how flustered the judge seemed and shocked that he has been allowed to walk around the civilized society I was thinking that he murdered some one. Then it turns out he was caught transporting weed and getting 9 years for it 15 years after the fact... a crime he committed when he was a boy...

You seemed to have misread the post. The Judge appears to be more angry that it took the case 15 years to be brought up to court than anything.

Just why Yunani Abdul Hamid's case was not pursued for 15 years surprised Justice V K Rajah, who called on the prosecution and Yunani's lawyer for a "coherent explanation" at yesterday's appeal hearing.

But Justice Rajah appeared unsatisfied with this explanation yesterday, saying: "It seems the matter was treated mechanically by the prosecution and defence counsel."
.
He was also concerned enough to ask the Law Society for a lawyer for Yunani, who was not represented. Mr Abraham Vergis volunteered on a pro bono basis. The appeal was adjourned to March 28.

The unsatisfied with explaination, and more importantly, the decision to ask the Law Society for counsel suggest that he's more pissed at the prosecution than anything.
The "more serious" bit appears to refer to the sloppy police investigation when a person was charged with the same case twice, and that the procedures here was thus worse, not in drugs>>>> cheating and forgery.

[PainRack]

Update: The appeal has gone through and he has been sentenced to 2 days.