GEORGE TOWN: A Chinese medicine practitioner has to stand trial for sending a threatening text message to his estranged wife two years ago.
Ee Yuin Chang, 45, was alleged to have sent the text message to his ex-wife Low Hooi Meng, 43, on June 25, 2017.
The text message read: “If you don’t return my 2 kids, I will make you until die or make you mad. Legal proceeding its just a drama for make you in trouble.”(sic)
He was charged under Section 507 of the Penal Code for criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication, which carries a seven-year jail term, if convicted.
However, the magistrate’s court here had released him since the prosecution had failed to prove that the phone from which the text message was sent was in Ee’s possession.
Today, High Court judge Akhtar Tahir allowed the prosecution’s appeal to charge Ee after the prosecutor proved that the phone was registered under the accused’s name.
Akhtar said it was enough to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defence should be called since the text message had came from a mobile phone number registered to the accused.
Ee’s lawyer, S Raveentharan, however, argued that his client had never owned the phone and had not used the mobile number to harass his wife.
“The mobile number was registered without my client’s knowledge and three prior police reports were made before,” he said.
He added that at that time the government had yet to impose a biometric registration for all mobile phone lines.
“Furthermore, the mobile phone used in the alleged commission of the crime was never tendered in court,” he said.
Akhtar then allowed bail at RM4,000 with one surety and ordered the magistrate’s court to set a date to hear the case.