The commencement of special corruption sessions courts at selected cities and towns this week underscores the fact that the government views corruption very seriously and ensures it is effectively kept at bay.

With the creation of the special courts, Federal Court chief registrar Hashim Hamzah said it heightened the intensity to fight corruption, in addition to the establishment of the Whistleblower Protection Act 2010 and Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.

"We aim to complete the prosecution of corruption cases within one year, particularly, public-interest cases," he was qouted as saying in a statement released by the Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu) today.

The special courts began operations this week in Johor Bahru, Ipoh, Seremban, Kuantan, Kuching, Kota Kinabalu, Kuala Lumpur and Shah Alam.

Hashim said lengthy trials and appeals should be minimised as they increased the opportunity for witnesses to go missing, witness and evidence-tampering, fading memory of witness, witness losing interest in the cases and thus, becoming cooperative.

Hashim said it was quite common to have as many as 20 witnesses for a single case, adding that lengthy processes were often seen to delay the delivery of justice.

He said the special court would also help the judges to be more focused on bringing the guilty to book as they did not have to handle a multitude of cases.

Furthermore, he said, the long procedure of court cases contributed to grave socio-economic imbalances.

- Bernama