Rumah Bonda founder Siti Bainun Ahd Razali is seeking to review the child abuse charges against her on grounds that they were defective. (Bernama pic)
KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court here has granted a two-day stay of the hearing for Rumah Bonda founder Siti Bainun Ahd Razali’s child abuse case.
Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah allowed the stay on proceedings for her defence, which was scheduled to start tomorrow, pending Siti Bainun’s bid to review the charges.
“I will give my decision (on the revision of the charges and the prosecution’s objection against the revision) on Jan 13.
“In the interim, I will give a stay, which will affect the hearing tomorrow and Friday,” Sequerah said.
Siti Bainun is standing trial on two charges of committing abuse and neglect on a teenage Down Syndrome girl known as Bella at a condominium in Wangsa Maju in 2021.
She was charged under Section 31(1)(a) of the Child Act 2001 which carries a maximum jail term of 20 years or a fine of RM50,000, or both, if convicted.
Siti Bainun sought to review the child abuse charges against her on grounds that they were defective.
She claimed that the sessions court’s decision to order her to enter her defence on the child abuse charges was null and void as the judge failed to consider the “defective” charges.
Earlier today, Siti Bainun’s lawyer, PG Cyril, said she took the position that she did not know what to answer in submitting her defence because of the “defective” charges.
To this, Sequerah replied: “How could she have been at a complete loss during the prosecution’s case?”
Cyril affirmed that it was the defence’s stand that both charges were defective, and that was why she wanted the higher court to review them.
Meanwhile, deputy public prosecutor Nor Azizah Mohamad told the court that Siti Bainun used the wrong avenue to challenge the charges.
She said the defence should have sent a letter to the High Court to request for a review of the sessions court’s order, rather than a notice of motion.
