{"id":2404,"date":"2008-10-04T00:03:43","date_gmt":"2008-10-03T16:03:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/indian\/2008\/10\/04\/hindraf-supporters-guilty-pleading-controversy\/"},"modified":"2008-10-04T00:03:43","modified_gmt":"2008-10-03T16:03:43","slug":"hindraf-supporters-guilty-pleading-controversy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/indian\/2008\/10\/04\/hindraf-supporters-guilty-pleading-controversy\/","title":{"rendered":"HINDRAF supporters guilty pleading controversy"},"content":{"rendered":"
Earlier, this issue was highlighted<\/a> by Waytha and lawyer Surendran. But was denied by the defendants lawyer. Now, 9 of the 29 who pleaded guilty are saying that they were not informed<\/a> by the lawyer:<\/p>\n

Nine of those who paid a RM1,000 fine are claiming that they did not tell their lawyer, Datuk N. Sivananthan, that they wanted to plead guilty.<\/p>\n

According to a spokesman for the nine, Sivananthan had asked them to indicate their plea on pieces of paper to know who wanted to go to trial.<\/p>\n

He alleged the lawyer saw judge Akhtar Tahir at the mention of the case and told him that 29 members of the group wanted to plead guilty.<\/p>\n

The spokesman said they were not given a chance to decide on their plea in court and were surprised by the turn of events.<\/p>\n

Akhtar gave them two months to pay their fines on the understanding that they could extend it to six months.<\/p>\n

Sivananthan later told the court that his team of lawyers was withdrawing from representing the 25 others.<\/p>\n

Akhtar told the accused that the trial would continue even if new lawyers were not appointed.<\/p>\n

The spokesman said those who had pleaded guilty were upset that they had not been given an opportunity to have their case heard.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’m also confused with the judge’s statement that the “trial will continue even if new lawyers were not appointed.” So, who is going to represent the accused? Wouldn’t it be unfair?<\/p>\n

However, Sivananthan was shocked over the allegations. He said they were aware of the whole thing:<\/p>\n

Sivananthan, meanwhile, said he was “shocked and disappointed” by the allegation that the 29 had been “coerced” into pleading guilty.<\/p>\n

The Kuala Lumpur Bar Criminal Practice Committee chairman said those who pleaded guilty were aware that they could have claimed trial like the 25 others.<\/p>\n

“We explained to them that with 54 accused and 200 subpoenas issued by the court, it would take time for the court to proceed. It’s a different matter if there was only one accused.”<\/p>\n

Sivananthan said the 29 had voluntarily pleaded guilty and confirmed facts in support of the charge.<\/p>\n

“They were also advised about the consequences of pleading guilty,” said the lead counsel among a group of seven lawyers from the KL Bar’s Legal Aid Centre.<\/p>\n

He said all those who pleaded guilty had signed letters confirming that they wanted to do so.<\/p>\n

Sivananthan said the accused were allowed to ask questions to clear their doubts on their plea.<\/p>\n

“We then told them to go back and think about it before coming to court the following day.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Earlier, this issue was highlighted by Waytha and lawyer Surendran. But was denied by the defendants lawyer. Now, 9 of the 29 who pleaded guilty are saying that they were not informed by the lawyer: Nine of those who paid a RM1,000 fine are claiming that they did not tell their lawyer, Datuk N. Sivananthan, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[21],"class_list":["post-2404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-indian","tag-hindraf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2404\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}