Explained: How police remand works and why suspects cannot be publicly identified before facing official charges

KUALA LUMPUR, May 1 — In the hours following the apprehension of a suspect, before any formal charges are filed, a court process determines whether the person in custody can be held longer to facilitate ongoing police investigations.

This formal process — a remand proceeding — is an important part of the Malaysian criminal justice system in which magistrates decide if police have sufficient grounds to continue detaining a suspect.

However, because the process largely occurs out of public view except in cases of public interest, it may be unfamiliar to many.

Past instances have arisen where suspects are widely identified or speculated about online through viral footages or posts following an arrest.

However, legal safeguards remain in force at this stage, including media restrictions on public identification such as revealing a suspect’s face or name.

So why the secrecy then?

It is important to understand what leads to a remand in the first place.

Under Section 28 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC), the police cannot hold a person in custody for more than 24 hours for investigation without a magistrate’s authorisation.

If investigations cannot be completed within this period and police seek to detain a suspect beyond 24 hours on the basis that the allegations are well-founded, they must apply to the Magistrate’s Court within that timeframe for further detention.

This application — typically made for a remand order — is provided for under Section 117 of the CPC.  

A person is therefore “remanded” when the magistrate issues a remand order to extend the suspect’s detention beyond 24 hours.

In short, the purpose of a remand is to give the police more time to complete the investigation and to decide whether there is enough evidence to charge the suspect with the suspected offence.

Most importantly, a suspect is still considered innocent at the remand stage.

TLDR: Individuals on remand have not been formally charged, and restrictions on naming them or publishing identifiable images are meant to protect the integrity of investigations and uphold the presumption of innocence.

Okay, so what happens if I am remanded?

According to the Office of the Chief Registrar of the Federal Court of Malaysia, several steps take place during a remand proceeding.

First, the police must give the magistrate reasons justifying why they need to detain the suspect beyond 24 hours and the court then considers these reasons and later issues the remand duration.

If the offence investigated relates to imprisonment of less than 14 years, detention shall not exceed four days for the first application and three days for any subsequent application.

If the offence relates to imprisonment exceeding 14 years, detention shall not exceed seven days for the first application and seven days for the second application.

During remand, a suspect in custody at a police lockup may make several requests according to their rights enshrined under Article 5 of the Federal Constitution and further codified under Section 28A of the CPC.

This includes being represented by a lawyer of their choice, contacting their family members to inform them of their whereabouts, getting reasonable medical attention and even lodging complaints of ill-treatment.

The magistrate can either allow or refuse a remand order, and if allowed, the police must then charge the suspect or release him/her.

TLDR: Police must justify continued detention by applying for a remand order, with the duration subject to legal limits depending on the offence being investigated, and if no remand is granted, the suspect must be released within 24 hours.