Rashidah binti Baharom

On the court record

Rashidah binti Baharom appears in the reported corpus as counsel for the prosecution in drug litigation before the High Court, with the reported matters argued largely on judgments in Bahasa Malaysia. In a full trial she was engaged where the charge was mengedar (trafficking) in methamphetamine of a net weight of 704.72 grams, and the court's catchwords set out the battleground the prosecution had to hold: sama ada kes prima facie dibuktikan (whether a prima facie case was proven), possession and knowledge, the contradictory evidence of the arresting witness, an ambiguity in the search list (Borang Bongkar), the chain of evidence and the admissibility of a statement. In a further full trial three charges had been registered against two accused, who were charged jointly with trafficking under seksyen 39B(1)(a) Akta Dadah Berbahaya 1952 (section 39B(1)(a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952).

Her reported prosecution work also reaches bail and sentencing. In a bail matter concerning a non-bailable offence under the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 the question was whether section 388 of the Criminal Procedure Code overrides section 41B of the Act, and whether a superior court decision delivered without written grounds binds a lower court. In a rayuan jenayah (criminal appeal) on sentence the reported catchwords engage mitigasi (mitigation), a plea of guilt, the status of a first offender, a young offender and the weight of the drugs. Appearing for the prosecution, her reported work engages the proof of a trafficking case at full trial, the statutory framework governing bail in drug offences, and the principles that shape sentence. The reported matters mark Rashidah binti Baharom as prosecuting counsel in drug litigation, from the prima-facie threshold through to bail and sentencing. Across these reported decisions her work traces the full arc of a drug prosecution — from the contest over the chain of evidence and the prima-facie case at full trial, through the statutory framework that governs bail in a non-bailable offence, to the calibration of sentence — and marks her as prosecuting counsel steeped in the practice of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952.