GOOD JUDGE DOESN'T DELAY, SAYS CHIEF JUSTICE

PUTRAJAYA, June 17 (Bernama) -- A judge who finds difficulty in making a
decision as soon as possible is not a good judge, said Chief Justice Zaki
Tun Azmi in the Federal Court Wednesday.

He said one of the factors in considering the ability of a good judge was
how up to date he was with his grounds of judgement, and trial judges should
make their decisions as early as possible and thereafter write their grounds of
judgement.

"In fact, in cases involving death penalties, where every conviction will
definitely be appealed against by the convicted person right up to the apex
court, there is no reason why the trial judges should not write their grounds
even before delivering their decisions," he said.

He said the delay whether in commencing a case, calling for defence, making
the decision at the end of trial or writing grounds of judgement, may cause
injustice.

Justice Zaki made these remarks over the delay of five years and five months
by a High Court Judge to decide to call for defence of Ghazalee Kassim, Mohamad
Junaidi Hussin, both unemployed, and Mohd Salleh Yunos, a taxi driver, who were
charged with trafficking in 50kg of cannabis nine years ago.


He said however, a reasonable time must be allowed to enable a judge to
weigh the evidence, and check and read the law.

"A decision made in a rush is also not a good decision lest the judge has
not properly considered the factual and legal issues thoroughly. On the other
hand, extreme delay can be damaging to all concerned, whether to the prosecution
or the defence," he said.

Justice Zaki said that in the case before the court Wednesday, the Court of
Appeal in upholding the three men's conviction and death sentence for drug
trafficking, had correctly analysed the grounds of judgement of the trial judge
and rightly concluded that the delay had not caused injustice to them.

He also said the Court of Appeal had analysed a long list of authorities of
the facts of the case before coming to the conclusion and the Court of Appeal
had also rightly concluded that the High Court judge had thoroughly evaluated
the evidence before deciding to call them for defence.

He reminded all trial judges that this case was not to be taken as precedent
for an excuse to take too much time to decide and write their grounds of
judgement.

Justice Zaki who sat with Federal Court justices Hashim Yusoff and
Mohd Ghazali Mohd Yusoff then upheld the trio's conviction and death
sentence after ruling that based on the facts of the case, the delay by the
trial judge in calling them for the defence had not caused any injustice.

The appeal was dismissed, he said.

Ghazalee, 39, Mohamad Junaidi, 38 and Mohd Salleh, 38, were jointly charged
under Section 39B(1)(a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 with trafficking in
50,650g of cannabis at the Merlin Inn parking lot in Jalan Tenteram, Johor
Baharu, at 11.45am on April 29, 2000.

They took the case to the Federal Court after the Court of Appeal last year
affirmed their conviction and death sentence imposed by High Court judge Datuk
Abdul Wahab Patail on Jan 9, 2007.

Counsel Hisyam Teh Poh Teik who represented them had on May 19 argued
that the delay by the trial judge had caused prejudice and disadvantage to the
trio in preparing their defence as many parts of the evidence had been
forgotten.

In reply, Deputy Public Prosecutor Manoj Kurup said that the trio should
have thought of their defence at the time they were charged.

-- BERNAMA