A SPORTING CHANCE

Is it good sportsmanship to keep moving goalposts to favour one's own team? BN/UMNO seems to believe it is. Witness the many instances of when in the course of a trial the Prosecution has amended the charges.

Often it's done when the charges clearly can't be sustained in the face of the evidence.

An infamous example is Anwar's first sodomy case, where the building the sodomy allegedly happened had not yet been built at the date of the offence as stated in the charge.

Any proper court would have thrown out the charge and acquitted Anwar.

But the courts of Malaysia are anything but proper and permitted the Prosecution to amend the date of the charge.

Sometimes the Prosecution amends the charges to harass a defendant,the changes to the charges being intended to send the accused and their lawyer from pillar to post, even though that is blatant abuse and misuse of the Court.

The Prosecution must, if a trial is to have any legitimacy at all, give the defendant a sporting chance, by not amending charges during a trial.

WRITTEN BY PAKAC LUTEB