Police in Malaysia to drag lockdown violators straight to court: Senior minister

KUALA LUMPUR — The police will be focusing less on issuing compound notices to flouters of the movement control order (MCO) and will now book them to be brought straight to court, Malaysia’s Senior Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said on Tuesday (April 14).

In a press conference broadcast “live” from Putrajaya, Mr Ismail said that the new decision was decided by the Malaysian government on Tuesday, seeing how many are still defying the MCO.

“We see that the public are acting as if they don’t care or are not afraid of the laws we have today. Maybe RM1,000 (S$327) is not seen as too high to scare them, those of whom are still continuously violating the MCO.

“So we agreed that the police — beginning tomorrow (Wednesday) — won’t focus on compounds. Beginning tomorrow, those who are caught will be remanded and brought straight to court.

“Let the court decide, because based on Section 24 of Act 342, the court can punish them not more than two years imprisonment and for a subsequent offence, five years imprisonment,” Mr Ismail said. MALAY MAIL