A SPECIAL court to deal with human trafficking will be established this year, with the first one in Klang, Selangor, said Chief Justice Raus Sharif.

The pilot project will begin in May or June while the others will be set up in phases in Ipoh, Melaka, Muar, Kota Kinabalu and Balik Pulau.

He said the special court, to be presided by a sessions court judge, will specifically hear and decide on human trafficking cases since statistics had shown a rise in such cases.

“We want a specialised court to handle such cases because from our experience, specialised courts do better than normal courts, and hopefully, to dispose of human trafficking cases quickly.

“This is because the witnesses will be in custody and we have to deal with this as quickly as possible. We must do a pilot project and learn from it before establishing it in phases,” he said after opening the Judicial Year 2018 in Putrajaya today.

Commenting on the Special Court for Sexual Crimes Against Children, which was established in April last year in Putrajaya, Raus said the court managed to dispose of 80% (or 287 cases) of its 357 cases in its first year of operation – well within the prescribed timeline, with 70 cases pending as of December 31.

“We must give justice to the victims. That is why we wanted all these cases to be disposed of within a year. The cases must be sped up because the courts need to hear what has happened when the case is still fresh (in the children’s minds)”, he said.

Raus said a new court complex in Sabah, which is expected to be ready in March, would also house a dedicated courtroom to hear child sexual crimes cases, besides 12 other courts to be established across the country in four phases by year-end. – Bernama, January 12, 2018.