KUALA TERENGGANU, Dec 14 — The Kuala Terengganu High Court has declared the trial in absentia of Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle-Brown, previously conducted by the Magistrate’s Court, was a mistrial.
High Court Judge Datuk Seri Mohd Radzi Harun said the conviction and sentence ordered by the Magistrate's Court before were consequently set aside.
“As this court had declared a mistrial, the charge against the appellant (Rewcastle-Brown) still subsists, and the criminal principle of autrefois acquit autre convict does not apply in favour of the appellant,” he said in his judgment today.
Unless the public prosecutor decides otherwise within his powers, Judge Radzi said he had ordered the case to be mentioned before a new magistrate with a view to a retrial on the same charge against Rewcastle-Brown.
He also ordered that the retrial magistrate shall then re-summon the witnesses of the prosecution and record their evidence in the absence of the appellant.
The prosecution today was conducted by Deputy Public Prosecutors Azizan Abdullah, Mohd Khairuddin Idris, and Nor Aishah Mohamad, while Rewcastle-Brown, who was absent, was represented by lawyer Guok Ngek Seong.
On February 7 last year, Rewcastle-Brown was sentenced to two years' jail in absentia by Kuala Terengganu Magistrate’s Court after being found guilty of defaming the Sultanah of Terengganu Sultanah Nur Zahirah, under Section 500 of the Penal Code.
Magistrate Nik Mohd Tarmizie Nik Mohd Shukri ordered that the prison sentence against Rewcastle-Brown, 66, commence on the date of her conviction.
However, she filed a notice of appeal at the Kuala Terengganu High Court seeking to set aside both her conviction and the imposed sentence.
Meanwhile, speaking to the press outside the court, Guok said the court had also agreed with the defence's previous submissions, which, among other things, stated that for any criminal charge, the accused must be brought to court to be charged.
"After that, if the accused does not appear before or during the trial, the court will determine whether it is fair or not to proceed in absentia...that is what we raised before," he said.
When asked whether his client would appear at the charges and the retrial of the case at the Magistrate's Court later, Guok said he was not sure because the matter of extraditing the editor would be difficult, as there is no formal extradition treaty between Malaysia and the United Kingdom.
