High Court Judge Time For Wrongdoers To Pay Not Taxpayers For Police Abuses In Pastor Koh And Amri Che Mat Cases

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In awarding general and aggravated damages to Amri’s wife, Norhayati Mohd Ariffin, High Court judge Su Tiang Joo accepted her testimony that she had suffered significant mental anguish and torment over the uncertainty of her husband’s fate. — File picture by Hari AnggaraKUALA LUMPUR, Dec 3 — With taxpayers increasingly bearing the cost of large court awards, a High Court judge has suggested it may be time for the federal government to seek partial or full recovery from the parties at fault in civil suits filed against the State.
The judge’s remarks came as the court ordered the government to pay nearly RM37 million to the family of Pastor Raymond Koh for enforced disappearance, and over RM3 million to that of activist Amri Che Mat for negligence in a police investigation last month.
In his 126-page full grounds of judgment for the November 5 decision made available on the judiciary’s website yesterday, High Court judge Su Tiang Joo warned that ever-higher damages awarded to reflect judicial abhorrence ultimately place a heavier burden on the public.
Su said this was especially striking because the responsible parties were entrusted with maintaining Malaysia’s peace and security, including the prevention of crime and the apprehension and prosecution of offenders.
“By seeking contribution and indemnity, the bad apples can be weeded out so that the majority of the good men and women will not be tarred and dragged down, and the term institutional failure will not be raised again,” he said.
While reading out his November 5 ruling, Su had highlighted the irony in awarding such hefty damages, pointing out that the larger the award, the more public funds are ultimately spent to compensate for the misconduct of government servants.
“It offends the concept of fairness, reasonableness and justice,” he was quoted as saying.
He also cited former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s 1983 speech at the Conservative Party Conference to illustrate his point, noting that there is no such thing as public money — there is only taxpayers’ money.
How the reliefs were decided
In awarding general and aggravated damages to Amri’s wife, Norhayati Mohd Ariffin, Su accepted her testimony that she had suffered significant mental anguish and torment over the uncertainty of her husband’s fate.
He further condemned the defendants, saying their disregard for Norhayati’s suffering and denial of her experiences was nothing short of callous.
“Especially when the evidence shows that she has been following up diligently, using her own resources to marshal evidence from relatives, friends, neighbours and members of her community to assist in the investigations, pressing for and successfully getting the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) to conduct an inquiry.
Yet despite all her efforts, Su noted that the plaintiff later discovered the inquiry had not been taken seriously and had to push again for a special task force (STF) to be established, only to go through the same process and find that its recommendations were classified as Official Secret, offering her no real assistance.
Throughout this ordeal, Su further noted that all those in authority, including the defendants, paid scant regard to her efforts.
“To assert that such would not give rise to distress at all, is with respect, heartless and irrational,” he said.
Su also said that maintaining the classification of the case as a missing person rather than as a kidnapping, including effectively halting all investigations since 2019 with no closure in sight, along with prolonged hostile cross-examination during the trial, further aggravated the plaintiff’s suffering.
For the aforesaid reasons, Su awarded RM2 million in general and aggravated damages.
As for exemplary damages, the judge rejected the defendants’ argument that their conduct was not sufficiently outrageous to warrant condemnation and punishment.
He said the court has indeed found unconstitutional action on the part of several defendants — police officers and the Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM) — employed under the federal government.
“To continue denying the findings of Suhakam and the STF, refusing to act on them, suppressing the findings of the STF which was commissioned by the Cabinet at the expense of public money is oppressive, irrational and arbitrary,” he said.
To show that the court could not be seen to condone such a serious dereliction of duty and the manner in which the defence was conducted, Su awarded RM1 million in exemplary damages.
In addition to the other awards, Norhayati was also granted RM14,254 in special damages to cover school fees for her three daughters for the eight years and eight months from Amri’s disappearance until the conclusion of the trial.
The High Court’s November ruling came after Norhayati filed a lawsuit in 2019 seeking information on her husband’s fate and compensation, relying on findings from a special task force report.
In April 2019, Suhakam concluded that Amri’s disappearance was an enforced one, carried out by government agents from the police’s Special Branch.
Amri was abducted around midnight on November 24, 2016, while driving, after his vehicle was surrounded by three cars and five men. He has remained missing since. - malaymail

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