MT Orkim Hijackers Can Be Prosecuted In Malaysian Court

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 4 (Bernama) -- Legal experts here said Malaysia has a strong case to prosecute the mastermind behind the hijacking of Malaysian tanker, MT Orkim Harmony. The Council of Professors' head of governance, law and public administration cluster, Prof Dr Nik Ahmad Kamal Nik Mahmod said even if the offence was committed in international waters, the ship was registered and flew the Malaysian flag. "Therefore, Malaysia has jurisdiction to hear the case here," he said. He cited the case involving seven Somali nationals who were charged in the Kuala Lumpur High Court with firing at Malaysian soldiers during a robbery on board a vessel in Somali waters in 2011. Criminal lawyers N. Sivananthan and Amer Hamzah Arshad agreed that a suspect could be charged in the Malaysian Court if the offence was committed within Malaysia. Amer Hamzah said there were legislations which confer jurisdiction to the Malaysian Court such as the Extra-Territorial Offences Act 1976 and Section 22 of the Courts of Judicature Act 1964. "According to the Territorial Sea Act 2012, as well as the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the breadth of the territorial sea of Malaysia shall for all purposes be 12 nautical miles. "However, in certain circumstances even if an offence was on the high seas, such as piracy against a Malaysian vessel, then the Malaysian Court has the jurisdiction to try such offence," he said. He said Section 22 of the Courts of Judicature Act 1964 among others provides that the Malaysian High Court shall have jurisdiction to try all offences committed within the country. This therefore applied to offences of piracy or hijacking on board any ship or any aircraft registered in Malaysia, that were committed by any citizen, permanent resident, or foreigner. The MT Orkim Harmony laden with 6,000 tonnes of RON95 fuel belonging to Petronas, was hijacked on June 11, 2015, about 30 nautical miles off Tanjung Sedili in Malaysia's southern state Johor, in Malaysian waters. The tanker carrying a crew of 22, comprising 16 Malaysians, five Indonesians and one Myanmar citizen, was spotted by a Royal Australian Air Force, P-3C Orion aircraft in the Gulf of Siam on June 17. Meanwhile, Nik Ahmad Kamal said, on the arrest in Indonesia recently of an Indonesian on suspicion of being the mastermind behind the tanker hijacking, that the man could be extradited to Malaysia and charged in the Malaysian Court. "Malaysia has a cooperation with all ASEAN police through the ASEANAPOL. Although he was arrested in Indonesia, Malaysia may request for the suspect to be deported here," he said. Sivananthan, who is also a counsel in the International Criminal Court (ICC) list, said it was necessary for Malaysia to file an application to extradite the suspect. "The suspect will argue that he is not involved in the crime and the Indonesian Courts must be satisfied with sufficient evidence before approving the extradition," he said. According to him, Malaysia has the Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Act that allows Indonesia to share their information with Malaysian authorities to build up a case against the suspect. On legal representation, all three experts said accused persons would be accorded the right to be defended by lawyers of their choice. Amer Hamzah said foreign lawyers could not practice in Malaysia, "but there is nothing to prevent Indonesian lawyers from working together with Malaysian lawyers (behind the scene) for the purpose of representing an Indonesian national in the Malaysian Court". "Many lawyers have represented foreign nationals in the Malaysian Courts. I too have represented accused persons of different nationalities in the Malaysian Courts. "Recently, I represented four Indonesian Masters of Vessels in our court," he disclosed. --BERNAMA