Last week, it was reported that a British tourist claimed to be stuck in Malaysia following a parking lot dispute that led to his passport getting confiscated by the George Town Magistrate’s Court. He alleged that, despite having settled his case, the court held onto his passport for weeks.
He went on to label Malaysia a “hellhole with no human rights” after he described being allegedly threatened by a local police officer.
PDRM says they followed procedure
According to a report by BERNAMA, Penang Police Chief Datuk Hamzah Ahmad shared that there were no breaches in the standard operating procedures (SOPs) during the remand of the British tourist over the misdemeanour case of damaging a parking barrier in Batu Ferengghi, Penang.
He explained that the 47-year-old man was placed at the Bayan Baru Central lockup and that all detainees were closely supervised by personnel on duty.
“On December 8, a parking technician filed a police report after a man damaged a parking barrier in Batu Ferengghi and the suspect broke the barrier with his hands after being unable to leave the location and there was a closed-circuit camera recording the incident,”
“Following the incident, at 3pm on December 9, the police arrested the suspect, who is a British citizen, and he was then remanded for 4 days before being charged at the George Town Magistrate’s Court on December 12 under Section 427 of the Penal Code,” he said.
Hamzah then highlighted the international news coverage of this incident, which went viral on February 11 (Tuesday), where the British tourist claimed to be stuck in Malaysia due to his passport being held by the court for 8 weeks at that point.
He said that the British tourist was allowed bail of RM12,000, with 3 local guarantors. Additionally, his passport was handed over to the court before his case was adjourned on December 12, up until January 22 for the submission of documents.
However, the case was postponed to February 13 before the complainant withdrew their report as the British tourist had paid them compensation of RM1,000. This led to his case being classified as a Dismissal Not Amounting to Acquittal (DNAA).
“During the charge, the court ordered that the passport be handed over to the court until the case was resolved and on February 13, the case was classified as DNAA and the passport was returned to the suspect. The passport was under the control of the court and does not involve the police,” he added.
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