THE prosecution today applied for a revision of a ruling by the Tangkak magistrates’ court to grant a discharge not amounting to an acquittal to Abdul Hamim Ab Hamid, notoriously known as “Long Tiger”, for extortion.

The application was filed before Muar High Court judge Abu Bakar Qatar, who then set June 1 for the decision.

Deputy public prosecutor Muhammad Syafiq Mohd Ghazali, in his submissions, said on May 17, lawyer Shaharudin Ali, who represented Hamim, 33, requested his client be released without bail on grounds that the case had no basis because the complainant had died.

He said that based on law, regardless of whether the complainant had died or was still alive, proceedings would continue unless the charge was incomplete, its meaning unclear or the accused did not know he was charged with a particular offence.

Shaharudin, on the other hand, questioned how would the case be proven if the complainant had died.

On May 6, 2020, Hamim was charged with extortion by intimidating Luqman Hakeem Othman, 20, to force the latter’s wife to drop a police report on a case against him.

The offence was allegedly committed at a restaurant in Bukit Gambir, Tangkak, between 7pm and 9pm in October 2019.

The offence, under section 388 of the penal code, carries a maximum 10 years’ jail and a fine or whipping.

However, Luqman, Hamim’s former employee, was involved in a road accident in Tangkak and died at the Sultanah Fatimah Specialist Hospital in Muar on March 23.

On May 17, it was reported that the Tangkak magistrates’ court had granted a discharge not amounting to an acquittal against Hamim on the extortion charge following an application from the latter’s lawyer.

Earlier today, the Tangkak magistrates’ court rejected Shaharudin’s application for his client to be granted a discharge not amounting to an acquittal on charges of threatening Luqman, under section 506 of the penal code and confining him, under section 342, on grounds that the complainant had died.

Apart from the three charges, on August 8 last year, Hamim, who is a Rohingya, was also charged with raping a woman on September 26, 2019, under section 376 (1) of the penal code.

Hamim, who infamously fled while awaiting trial at the Tangkak magistrates’ court in December last year, was sentenced to 12 months’ jail by the same court, after pleading guilty to deliberately fleeing from police custody. – Bernama, May 25, 2022.