COMMENT | Let wrongly convicted documented migrant exercise his right

COMMENT | We, the 19 undersigned groups, are pleased that the Tawau High Court judge Lim Hock Leng, after revision, acquitted documented migrant worker, Sabri Umar and ordered him released from prison immediately on July 22.

On April 19, Sabri was wrongly convicted of being in Malaysia illegally for the offence under Section 6(1)( c) Immigration Act 1959/63 by the Tawau Sessions Court, when in fact, he was a documented migrant worker with a valid work permit/pass at the material time.

This was a fact evident from, amongst others, Sabri’s Indonesian passport, which was taken by the police when he was arrested on April 5.

The court acknowledged the fact that Sabri (above) was whipped, which was an act against the law which prohibits the carrying out of the sentence of whipping until an appeal filed is heard and determined. This was also confirmed by the...