Salim Bashir said Section 172B of the CPC currently only allows the courts to play a supervisory role.

“Under normal circumstances, the public prosecutor, who is also the attorney-general, will issue consent only upon obtaining the necessary evidence and documents to enable the transfer (of a serious case to a higher court for trial),” he said, adding that the need for consent in writing before a transfer to a High Court should be scrapped.

Instead, he said, the appearance of a deputy public prosecutor as the representative of the public prosecutor should be allowed as implied consent.

The lawyer was commenting on a case reported by FMT earlier this week, where five men held for nearly a year on murder charges were given a discharge not amounting to an acquittal (DNAA).

The men, who were held in remand at the Ulu Choh prison in Johor since Dec 24 last year, were not granted bail as they were facing capital punishment as murder accused.

They were finally charged with causing hurt with a dangerous weapon and a magistrate granted them bail when they claimed trial to the new charge.

Salim said while the CPC states that “trial shall begin 90 days after an accused is charged”, that is not happening in complex cases.

He said it was also prudent for the prosecution to speed up efforts in obtaining documents from relevant agencies like the chemist department and government hospitals.

In the case of the five men, it was revealed that they had been produced in the magistrate’s court 10 times over the past year while awaiting the post-mortem report and consent from the public prosecutor to transfer the murder case to the High Court.

Lawyer A Srimurugan said granting bail should be the rule and holding prisoners in remand before they are found guilty should be an exception.

“Only those who are likely to tamper with witnesses and evidence should be in prison,” he said.

Srimurugan said it was unjust to allow an accused to languish in prison for a long time while awaiting trial, due to procedural shortcomings.

“Judges cannot fold their arms and remain silent spectators when the liberty of the accused is at stake,” he said.

Srimurugan said a person who is acquitted of a capital offence cannot seek compensation for the loss of liberty.

The lawyer said the CPC should be amended to give judges more power to compel the prosecution to begin trial expeditiously or give the accused a DNAA.