Court must set an example – jail for Khir, no less

Khir Toyo offers free dental care to poor in lieu of jail

Vent: Are we missing something here? Doesn’t former Selangor menteri besar Dr Mohd Khir Toyo forfeit his dental licence as he was found guilty of graft Section 165 of the Penal Code, which is a punishable crime?

So what free dental service is he hallucinating about when he won’t be able to practice? And on what grounds Khir’s lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah pleading his case?

That he has a wife and six kids? What about that poor mother who stole to feed her children? She was jailed!

Perhaps this is just a test run for Shafee’s more potent potential client. He will plead that this client is a 60-year-old kleptomaniac with a compulsive shopaholic wife and two children. One of whom is a married to an internationally known high-risk individual who may not even post bail to save his father-in-law. The other doesn’t have a proper job and is dependent on his father’s brand for survival.

To compound matters his siblings have all disowned him as they accuse him of besmirching their father’s name. Thus in mitigation, Shafee will ask for his continued residency in Putrajaya.

Bluemountains: The court must take cognisance of the fact that the law must be upheld at all times regardless of the mitigation plea.

It will be sending a wrong message to all that sentencing can be bargained if you are a VIP. At the same time, it will be opening the floodgate for all other related cases to be reviewed in the name of justice and fairness.

Khir is not a juvenile and he must be made to remember that crime does not pay.

Negarawan: “Shafee also said that his client is 50, and has six children aged six to 24. The lawyer said he had seen Khir tutoring his children and also taught them to read the Holy Quran until ‘khatam’ (finish).

“He also suffers from a heart problem and had an attack when he was at the National Heart Institute last month.”

Did Shafee consider the same family and health issues in his case against Anwar? Shafee is a hypocrite.

Legit: This is the most bizarre and ridiculous plea bargain we have ever heard so far. Free dental! What a joke.

I will not go near him because he may drill holes in all the wrong places because of his frustration and anger. The Federal Court judges will be making a grave mistake if they accede to his plea.

Appum: Corruption is a very serious crime especially in high office where one wields a lot of power. In fact, for such high-level officials, two years would have been very lenient. It should be compounded 10 times that.

In China, such high officials would face a firing squad. Nevertheless, if we have such precedence, what will the public service be for, say, a PM who is found guilty of embezzling billions of ringgit?

I’m really surprised that such mitigation can come from a learned senior counsel. So what is so great about free dental services (and only three times a week!).

The poor can get such services free from government clinics and hospitals. Instead his property, considered proceeds of corruption, should be confiscated and sold, with the money raised going to the poor.

Ferdtan: Muhammad Shafee, as outsourced lead DPP (deputy public prosecutor), did you offer such terms to former opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim in the last sodomy trial?

Anwar is much older than Khir and even has a bad back. Yet you as prosecutor cross-appealed the Federal Court to enhance the five-year sentence handed down by the lower court.

Your heartless prayer to the court to increase the sentence up to the maximum of 20 years was an act most foul – by any human standard.

No doubt you are now a defence lawyer mitigating on behalf of your client, but that does not take away your contradictory stand.

Ipoh PP: “The lawyer (Muhammad Shafee) said he had seen Khir tutoring his children and also taught them to read the Holy Quran until ‘khatam’ (finish).”

If he had done the above, he would not have committed the crime. When now found guilty, he pleaded for leniency.

This man has been charged for corruption and the amount is not small. A poor mother who steals a tin of milk to feed her hungry child was sentenced to prison. What more the former Selangor MB.

The court must be firm and send him to prison. He should have thought of the consequences of his action. He is no ordinary person. He should now face the music like a man and not plead to be let off the hook. The Federal Court judges must set an example.

Speaking Sense: The cheek of it! They think corruption is a joke. Or maybe it is to create a precedent for future more massive corruption convictions?

Evil knows no bounds. How about doing brain surgery on Umno leaders and lawyers for free if a surgeon is convicted of murder?

Khir Toyo, how about giving free dental service in jail?

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