PUTRAJAYA: It is not the public prosecutor’s duty to inform the public why criminal charges are initiated or discontinued against a person in court, says Attorney-General Ahmad Terrirudin Salleh.
In delivering his maiden speech at the opening of the Legal Year, Terrirudin said the public prosecutor’s discretion to file or discontinue charges is enshrined under the Federal Constitution.
“It is pertinent to emphasise that the office of the public prosecutor must be permitted to discharge its duties under the constitution.
“Stakeholders must understand the role of public prosecutor,” he added.
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Previously, civil society leaders demanded an explanation over the prosecution’s request for a discharge not amounting to an acquittal (DNAA) for deputy prime minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi in his Yayasan Akalbudi case, last September.
At the time, former Malaysian Bar president Ambiga Sreenevasan said the prosecution’s decision turned the trial into “an utter waste of public funds” and a waste of the hard work by members of the Attorney-General’ Chambers.
Zahid, a deputy prime minister, had been accused of embezzling millions of ringgit from Yayasan Akalbudi and accepting bribes for various projects during his tenure as the home minister between 2013 and 2018.
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