If arrested, you must be told the grounds of arrest, and you may ask to contact a relative or friend and consult a lawyer. You must be brought before a Magistrate within 24 hours (excluding travel time). Police can only hold you longer with a remand order. Stay calm, give your identity details, and ask for a lawyer before giving a detailed statement.
If police cannot complete an investigation within 24 hours, they must ask a Magistrate for a remand order under section 117 CPC. Periods are capped by the seriousness of the offence: 4 plus 3 days, or 7 plus 7 days. The Magistrate must be satisfied detention is justified. A lawyer can oppose remand or seek a shorter period, and the High Court can review an order.
At the first court date the charge is read and you plead guilty or claim trial; bail is decided. The case then goes through case management and disclosure of documents, then trial. If the court finds a prima facie case you are called to enter your defence. After verdict, there is mitigation and sentence. An appeal must be filed within 14 days.
Police can require a person who appears to know the facts of a case to attend and give a statement. You must answer truthfully, but you are not bound to answer questions that would tend to expose you to a criminal charge. Find out whether you are a witness or a suspect, get advice first, and read your statement carefully before signing.
Under the Penal Code amendments made in 2024, it is an offence to let another person control your bank account or payment card, or to use your own or another person's account for transactions without lawful purpose. Penalties include fines and imprisonment of up to 10 years for the most serious offences. If your account is frozen or police call you, get advice before giving a statement.
Section 6 of the Immigration Act 1959/63 prohibits a non-citizen from entering Malaysia without a valid entry permit or pass, and the accused bears the burden of proving lawful entry (s.6(4)). Section 15 prohibits remaining after a pass has expired or been cancelled; it is an offence to do so without reasonable cause (s.15(1),(4)). Both offences can lead to a fine, imprisonment or both, and section 6 also provides for whipping, subject to the exemptions in criminal procedure law. Get advice before pleading: the facts behind the overstay, such as illness or an employer holding the passport, can matter.
Section 55D of the Immigration Act 1959/63 punishes anyone who makes, forges or alters an endorsement or document to be used as a visa, permit, pass or certificate, with mandatory imprisonment, a fine and whipping. Section 56(1) covers using another person's pass, obtaining a pass by a false statement, and using or possessing forged or unlawfully altered passes or endorsements. Forgery and passport offences may also be charged under other laws. Key questions are usually who made or altered the document, and whether the accused knew it was not genuine, for example where an agent arranged it.
Under ATIPSOM 2007, "trafficking in persons" means recruiting, conveying, transferring, harbouring, receiving or similar acts, by means such as force, coercion, fraud, deception, abuse of power or of vulnerability, for the purpose of exploitation (s.2). Trafficking an adult carries up to 20 years' imprisonment and a fine (s.12); aggravated trafficking and trafficking a child carry life imprisonment or at least five years, and whipping (ss.13, 14). Consent is no defence (s.16), movement need not be proved (s.17A), and for child victims the means need not be proved (s.14(2)). The defence usually focuses on whether exploitation, the means and the accused's role are proved.
Threatening to harm you, your family, your reputation or your property to make you pay can be criminal intimidation (Penal Code s.503, punished under ss.506 and 507), and forcing payment by putting someone in fear of injury can be extortion (s.383). Splashing paint or damaging property can be mischief. Under the Moneylenders Act 1951, a loan by an unlicensed moneylender is unenforceable (s.15), and a moneylender or agent who harasses or intimidates a borrower, the borrower's family or people connected with the borrower, or watches or besets their home or workplace, commits an offence (s.29B). Preserve the evidence, make a police report quickly, and get advice on the debt itself, because a genuine debt to a lawful creditor still has to be dealt with through lawful means.
