This is an application by the applicant to stay and/or strike out the charge against him. The applicant was jointly charged with six other Somalians in the High Court under s 3 of the Firearms (Increased Penalties) Act 1971 with discharging firearms at Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) personnel while hijacking the Bunga Laurel in the Indian Ocean about 250 nautical miles off Oman. A special team from the RMN arrested the applicant and six others and brought them to Malaysia where they were re-arrested by the Malaysian Police.

Held: Application dismissed.

This Court has jurisdiction to try the charge against the applicant. Section 22(1)(b)(iv) of the Courts of Judicature Act 1964 confers jurisdiction on this Court to try the offence allegedly committed by the applicant on the high seas against Malaysian citizens, which offence was certified by the Attorney-General to be affecting the security of Malaysia. The applicant's arguments that the Bunga Laurel is not registered in Malaysia and that the alleged offence happened on the high seas 250 nautical miles from Oman, are therefore of no consequence to this case.

Malaysia became a party to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982 (UNCLOS) on 13 November 1996. Articles 100, 101 and 105 of UNCLOS authorise Member States to seize pirate ships and to arrest the persons involved in piracy. Member States are authorised to bring suspected pirates to trial. Therefore, any Member State has an uncontroversial power to seize any ship suspected of being used by pirates, arrest its crew, and bring them to its territory to be tried in its courts. Under the Convention on the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Maritime Navigation 1988 (SUA Convention 1988), Malaysia also acceded to have a duty to adopt all national laws necessary to assure the prosecution of any act of violence at sea. Member States are allowed to use a strong approach when nationals of their own States are victims of hijacking. What the Malaysian Navy did in this case is not only allowed by our local laws but is also within the spirit of the UNCLOS and SUA Conventions.

This action by the Malaysian authorities resembles that taken by the French Navy in the seizure of the yacht Le Ponant and of the US Navy in the case of the seizure of the cargo ship Maersk Alabama by pirates. In both cases, the respective national navies arrested the pirates and put them in the hands of their national courts. Malaysia too has had to take positive and certain action in defending its citizens and interests abroad, especially while on the high seas.