Mohd Aman Bin Mustapa v Pendakwa Raya [Polis Diraja Malaysia (PDRM)]

Case Significance

Illustrates the appellate approach where a trial is completed by a successor judge on the notes of evidence, and the enhancement of sentence for an extortion offence committed in abuse of public office.

This High Court decision at Taiping concerns the appeal of a serving police officer against his conviction and sentence for extortion, heard together with the related appeal on sentence, and it addresses both the soundness of the conviction and the adequacy of the custodial term. The appellant had been convicted after a full trial in the Sessions Court under seksyen 385 Kanun Keseksaan (section 385 of the Penal Code) for putting the complainant in fear of injury in order to commit extortion, the threatened harm being that intimate videos would be reported to the Pejabat Agama (the religious affairs office), thereby dishonestly inducing the complainant to part with RM300; he had been acquitted of a further charge under section 376(2)(f) of the Penal Code. A notable procedural feature was that the trial had begun before one Sessions Court judge, who called for the defence before her mandatory retirement, and was completed by a successor judge who reviewed the notes of evidence of the prosecution stage before convicting. On the appellant's appeal the court considered whether the Sessions Court judge had erred in law or fact, whether the prosecution witnesses were credible, and whether the ingredients of the charge had been proved. It found no judicial misappreciation of the evidence and held that the ingredients were established, so the appeal against conviction was dismissed and the conviction affirmed. Weighing the appellant's status as a police officer entrusted to protect the public, whose conduct amounted to a serious abuse of the powers conferred on him and an embarrassment to the service, the court enhanced the sentence of imprisonment from three years to five years. The judgment is a useful illustration of the appellate approach to a conviction where trial was completed by a successor judge on the notes of evidence, and of the enhancement of sentence for an offence committed in abuse of public office.