KUALA LUMPUR: Two lawyers and their client were sentenced to seven days' imprisonment for contempt for filing false evidence four years ago.
Sessions Court judge Halilah Suboh meted out the sentence against lawyer Mark Robin Tallala and G. Mahadeva, as well as their client, Jagmohan Singh Sandhu, today.
The court allowed the trio's stay of execution pending their appeal at the High Court.
Halilah, in her judgment, said all court officers have a responsibility not to mislead the court by presenting false evidence.
She said each of the officers of the court has a heavy burden in carrying out their duties and roles based on principles of law and justice.
"As lawyers, justice is owed not only to their respective clients but also to the public and the court. This also becomes the duty of respondents as defence counsel and lawyers.
"In this case, the witness statement was intentionally and dishonestly filed.
"The respondents knew that the witness statement was not the actual statement given to the witness. Therefore, they (respondents) deliberately misled this court."
She said if the matter had not been noticed and disclosed before the trial, the impugned statement would have been sued during the trial, and disrupted and compromised the fairness of the case.
She said preventive measures should be imposed on the respondents.
"Regarding the argument that the respondents only need to apologise, the court found that the apology should have been made at an early stage, as soon as the committal application was filed.
"The court believes that a prison sentence is appropriate, suitable, and reasonable. A fine would not be appropriate for the respondents as it would not reflect the seriousness of the offence," she said.
The trio were found guilty by the Court of Appeal in October last year of filing a false witness statement for Allen David Martinez without approval at the Sessions Court.
The appellate court said lawyers should not put their own words or narratives into the mouth of a witness, and that this was a "basic rule of law and ethics".
The court has ordered the case to be remitted back to the Sessions Court for contempt proceedings to proceed.
The false evidence came to light after Martinez filed an affidavit in 2020, denying every answer in the impugned witness statement.
He also said he did not communicate with nor meet the lawyers before the filing of the impugned document.
Tallala and Mahadeva later admitted to having never met or sought Martinez's personal confirmation before the filing of the impugned witness statement.
They blamed Jagmohan and said they relied solely on their client's instructions and the supposition that the latter had finalised the contents of the impugned witness statement with Martinez.
