Judicial commissioner Tun Majid Tun Hamzah, in allowing the review of deputy public prosecutor Iskandar Ahmad, ruled that the good behaviour bond imposed by the Petaling Jaya Sessions Court earlier this month was incorrect.
“I am of the view that the lower court has wrongly exercised its discretion in imposing the bond.
“This court’s order does not reflect the seriousness of this offence,” he said.
The High Court also said the Sessions Court had wrongly considered the fact that Indonesian maid Suyanti Sutrinso had withdrawn her police report during the trial as a mitigating factor before imposing the bond.
“Once a police report was lodged, it was no longer her case. It is now the state’s case.
“And it is up to the attorney-general to pursue the case against the alleged perpetrator if he finds there is sufficient evidence for the complaint,” Tun Majid said.
The court added that Suyanti had been employed as a domestic worker, not a slave.
Tun Majid ordered Rozita Mohd Ali to serve her jail sentence from today, and refused an application for stay of execution by her lawyer Haniff Khatri Abdulla.
Haniff said they had been instructed to appeal against the jail sentence.
Rozita, 44, was bound over for five years on a bond of RM20,000 by the Petaling Jaya Sessions Court after she changed her plea and pleaded guilty to causing grievous hurt to Suyanti.
A video of Suyanti seriously injured and lying near a drain in a housing area in Mutiara Damansara had gone viral in December 2016.
It was reported then that Rozita had allegedly used a kitchen knife, a clothes hanger, a steel mop and an umbrella to cause multiple injuries to Suyanti’s head, hands, legs and internal organs.
An online petition against the court’s sentence attracted over 70,000 signatures.