KUCHING: A woman’s jail sentence was cut short after her father appealed to have her not charged a second time in a drug case as she is facing mental issues. The woman is serving a jail sentence for the first offence.
Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) Public Complaints Bureau chief, Wilfred Yap, said he was approached by the woman’s father to appeal to get the second charge dropped.
With a mental health document for support, Yap forwarded the appeal to the police investigating officer and to the presiding magistrate.
Yap said the Magistrate’s Court has made an order under Section 342 Criminal Procedure Code for the woman to be sent to Kota Sentosa Hospital for one month for observation.
The 24-year-old woman was fined for the first offence but due to the family’s inability to pay the fine, the accused was jailed.
Yap said according to the father, who approached him a couple of weeks ago, her daughter was unable to make any rational decision in her life and she is receiving psychiatric treatment at Kota Sentosa Hospital.
Yap said as the family was too poor to engage a lawyer the father felt that his daughter’s case did not receive fair treatment due to her inability to explain to the police that she is under a psychiatrist’s care. After her sentence was meted out, the family was not able to pay the fine.
Yap said he empathised with the father and asked him to get a medical report from the Sentosa Hospital.
He added that SUPP PCB is always ready to help any individual who might be facing similar a problem and does not know how to deal with it.
