Judge Mohd Firuz Jaffril ruled that the police and the officer in charge, Norzamani Mat Zim, had breached their statutory duties in wrongfully detaining Azrul Hadrav Abdullah and that Azrul was not told the reason for his arrest.

Azrul, a former air force officer, sued the government, the police and Norzamani in December 2017 for damages over his arrest on the ground that the authorities had breached their statutory duty.

The judge noted that Azrul was arrested on Jan 9, 2017 and was taken to the Johor Bahru Magistrate’s Court to obtain a remand but that the remand was rejected.

“The court ordered him to be released but that did not happen. The plaintiff was taken to the Johor police headquarters and rearrested.

“There was no ground provided for his second arrest except for a Tanjung Kupang police report,” Firuz said, adding that the remand application for the second arrest was also dismissed by the Magistrate’s Court.

He said that after Azrul’s third arrest, he was taken to the Kuantan police district to secure another remand but the application was again rejected.

“The police wanted to take him to Sepang for a fourth arrest but miraculously that did not happen,” he said.

Firuz said that Azrul’s constitutional rights were breached when he was arrested without being informed why.

“One cannot be kept in custody without the court’s order. And there was no explanation as to how three police reports were used as the reason to arrest, how they were related to each other or how the reports were related to him or his company, Sunsky Properties Sdn Bhd,” he said.

The judge also said that during the trial, the defence did not call one “Supt Siva”, who gave orders to Norzamani to arrest Azrul.

“I am perplexed as to why Siva was not called to testify,” he said.

He allowed Azrul’s claim for loss of liberty during the four days of detention, claim for exemplary damages, as well as injuries to his feelings and dignity, for going through the mala fide exercise.

Azrul received RM75,000 for the loss of liberty and RM15,000 for each day in detention or RM60,000 in total. The court also granted him RM100,000 in exemplary damages.

It also ordered the government, represented by Nik Mohd Noor Nik Kar, to pay cost of RM40,000 to Azrul.

Azrul was represented by lawyer Muniandy Vestanathan.