Justice Kamaludin Said said this category of prisoners must be given the opportunity to exhaust their appeals up to the highest court.

“Any lawyer could pick up their files and conduct their appeals later,” he said when a three-member bench dismissed a 34-year-old man’s appeal for extension of time to file his notice of appeal against a sentence for rape and sodomy.

In August 2017, the man, who had no counsel, pleaded guilty in the sessions court in Shah Alam to the offences committed on an underage victim earlier that year.

He was sentenced to 25 years’ jail and three strokes of the rotan for rape and another 10 years’ jail and one stroke for unnatural sex.

The court ordered the jail terms to run concurrently, meaning that he will serve only 25 years but he will still be whipped four times.

An appellant in a criminal case must file a notice of appeal within 14 days of a court order.

However, while in prison, this man only filed an application for extension of time to file the notice of appeal to the High Court on Feb 17, 2020. It was later dismissed.

He again filed an appeal to the Court of Appeal last year with the assistance of lawyer KA Ramu of the National Legal Aid Foundation.

The Court of Appeal bench today refused the appeal due to the inordinate delay.

“It will open the floodgates if we entertain this appeal,” said Kamaludin, who sat with Justices P Ravinthran and Mariana Yahya.

However, he commended Ramu for bringing up the matter and hoped the prisons department would assist inmates serving long custodial sentences.

Deputy public prosecutor Fauziah Daud, who represented the prosecution, had objected to the appeal.