Minister in the Prime Minister’s department Azalina Othman Said has said that legal practitioners are required to brush up on their IT knowledge; as the special Cyber Court is set to begin operations on 1 September.
The Cyber Court in Kuala Lumpur is set to operate as a pilot programme that will see it specialise in dealing with cybercrimes. This setup is similar to other existing specialised courts in the Malaysian legal system. Naturally, the new court will also have a special team to deal with online slander and social media abuse.
The government is also working with the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to conduct training courses for judges and prosecutors. Interestingly, the de facto Law Minister pointed out that the training courses would take place over the weekend before the opening of the Cyber Court.
Ideally, the Cyber Court will hasten the hearing of cases dealing with cybercrime; while also allowing the issues to be heard by judges who are well versed in the matter. At the moment, the court will only be operating in KL. However, there are plans to expand it to Penang and Johor in the event that the pilot programme is well received.
[Source: The Malay Mail Online]
