A SINGLE parent who was jailed eight days and later fined RM1,000 voiced her dissatisfaction publicly today over the alleged double standards shown by the courts when it came to sentencing movement control order (MCO) violators.

B. Lisa Christiana questioned if there was one set of rules for ordinary citizens and another set for those with influence.

The 30-year-old told a press conference today she was a victim of an injustice as she was sent to prison while ministers and their children were merely fined for the same offence.

“A datuk’s (Ahmad Zahid Hamidi) daughter (Nurulhidayah Ahmad Zahid) also committed the same offence but why was she only fined, and even that was a lesser amount than what I was slapped with,” she said at the people’s service centre in the Batu parliamentary constituency.

“And then, there was the deputy health minister (Noor Azmi Ghazali), who was having a meal in a group. He was also just fined, no jail sentence.”

Lisa was sentenced to 30 days in prison after she pleaded guilty to violating the MCO at the Petaling Jaya magistrates’ court on April 21.

The mother of a 6-year old, who lives in a three-bedroom rented apartment, was arrested after buying drinks at a nearby shop and stopping to chat with two friends.

Among the three, only she was sentenced to jail while the other two were fined.

Last week, judicial commissioner Norsharidah Awang of the Shah Alam High Court, who heard Lisa’s review application, reduced her sentence to a RM1,000 fine, taking into account that she was a first-time offender and that she had served eight days in prison.

On Tuesday, Umno president Zahid’s daughter, Nurulhidayah, and her husband, Saiful Nizam Mohd Yusoff, were each fined RM800 by the magistrates’ court for breaching the MCO in Putrajaya last month.

The couple broke the stay-at-home order on April 20 to visit Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Zulkifli Mohamad Al-Bakri, followed by Deputy Environment and Water Minister Ahmad Masrizal Muhammad, at their offices in the administrative capital.

Nurulhidayah later uploaded pictures of the visits on her Instagram.

In the other case, Azmi and Perak exco Razman Zakaria were fined RM1,000 each for the same offence. They, too, did not receive jail sentences.

They were fined after being photographed having a meal with 30 other people at a tahfiz school in Lenggong last month.

Putrajaya has distanced itself from allegations of double standards after Senior Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said the government had no say in sentences meted out by the courts in cases of MCO violations.

Ismail, who is also defence minister, said judges and magistrates have the discretion to decide on the punishment.

Lisa is currently seeking help from Batu MP P. Prabakaran over her next course of action.

Prabakaran said he will seek legal advice and bring up the matter in Parliament. – May 7, 2020.