Dead precedent

Great job, there counselors:

A Malaysian judge scolded government prosecutors for filing a corruption charge against a policeman who died two years ago, a news report said Thursday.

Sessions Court Judge Noradidah Ahmad, who was presiding over a bribery case, was surprised Wednesday when she noticed court documents stating that one of two policemen accused in the case had died after a stroke in 2005, the New Straits Times newspaper reported.

"We do not have to include a dead man in the charge. Dead people cannot testify," Noradidah was quoted as saying by the newspaper. "It's 2007 now, surely the prosecution had time to amend the charge. It is not as if he died yesterday."

I wonder if they didn't notice that the guy had kicked the bucket, they forgot, or they were just too lazy to amend the charges.

Officials familiar with the case in the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court and the Anti-Corruption Agency, which filed the charge, could not immediately be contacted for comment.

You don't say.

Sankara Nair, a prominent Malaysian lawyer, said he agreed "you cannot charge a dead man."

"When a person dies, the charge dies with him," Nair told the AP.

Well, that's good to know. If I ever find myself dead in Malaysia, I can rest assured that I won't be on the hook for any prison time.

Prosecutors said they would consider amending the charge to exclude Che Amil from the case, the New Straits Times added.

Yeah. That would probably be a good idea.