Constructive Arrest: An Analysis of the Case of PP v Mohd Safwan Husain

Abstract

After the landmark principle in Shaaban & Ors v. Chong Fook Kam & Anor that established a different set of definition for arrest in Malaysia Criminal Procedure Law in 1969, the case of Pendakwa Raya lwn. Mohd Safwan Husain again stirred the definition of arrest in the year of 2017. While it has long been a norm in this area of law to differentiate arrest into actual and constructive arrest, the judgment of Mohd Safwan Husain commented the differentiation critically. This paper aims to analyse the arrest happened in the case of Mohd Safwan Husain thoroughly, not only from the perspective of Criminal Procedure Code, but also from the view of Dangerous Drugs Act. Research method used are library research and case analysis. As for now there is no governing law on constructive arrest, the researchers believe that an explanation should be provided on what constitutes a constructive arrest in the Criminal Procedure Code and the present existing provision which is Section 15 Criminal Procedure Code should be amended.