KUALA LUMPUR, July 3 — Suspects in criminal cases can be arrested and remanded or held before they are charged, criminal lawyers have said following Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s arrest today by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).

Senior criminal lawyer Datuk Rajpal Singh Mukhtiar Singh said it was a "standard practice” for the MACC to arrest individuals before they are charged and said this has been done in most of the anti-graft body’s cases.

"They can. They always do that because they don’t want the suspect to run away,” he told Malay Mail when asked if the authorities could do so.

"It’s up to authorities, if they feel they want to remand a person before charging, they can do it. They can do it, whether it’s right to do that is another thing,” he added.

But Rajpal felt that it was not necessary to arrest Najib and hold the former prime minister overnight before he is charged.

"They don’t have to arrest him today to make sure he is charged tomorrow because he has been cooperative, he has gone and given statement when he is required to,” he said.

"I feel you don’t need to, just call him to come to court in the morning, charge him,” he said.

"You only try to hold someone if there is risk of flight. But I don’t think Datuk Seri Najib Razak has any intention of doing that,” he said.

"It’s quite a normal practice for MACC. It’s not isolated to this case. Many cases before they have done the same thing,” he added.

Senior criminal lawyer Salim Bashir Bhaskaran told Malay Mail that the Criminal Procedure Code allows authorities to arrest a person suspected of committing an offence and detain him for further investigation before a decision is made on whether he would be charged.

A suspect can be held for the first 24 hours under remand for investigations, but the authorities will then have to produce him before a Magistrate’s Court to apply for extension of remand, he said.

For Najib’s case, Salim pointed out that it is still only a presumption that he would be charged tomorrow even with a press statement announcing that, noting that the decision to press charges tomorrow, or on another day; or even not at all, is solely up to the Attorney-General and not for authorities like the MACC.

"The powers of remand is to facilitate investigations. There’s nothing stopping MACC from making an arrest and remanding him pending charging for the purpose of facilitating investigations,” he told Malay Mail when contacted.

"It’s just like any member of the public...Even if they are going to charge tomorrow, it’s perfectly fine that he is remanded and during remand period he is charged,” he said, again citing as reason the AG’s "absolute discretion” to press charges.

"Because we don’t know at this juncture, we are only presuming he will be charged tomorrow, so he may not be charged tomorrow. They might put him in remand for further investigation. It’s the absolute purview of the public prosecutor to decide whether he will be charged,” he said.

Salim said the maximum remand period for offences carrying penalties of maximum 14 years’ imprisonment would be 14 days, while the maximum remand period is seven days for any offences with penalties below 14 years’ jail.

This comes as DAP’s civil liberties lawyer Syahredzan Johan urged authorities to adhere to lockup rules as Najib spends the night on remand.

"Rule of law must be adhered to, regardless of how we despise the arrested person,” said the political secretary to DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang.

The government’s special taskforce for the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal today announced that Najib was arrested at his private residence at 2.35pm in relation to former 1MDB subsidiary SRC International Sdn Bhd.

The task force said Najib will be charged tomorrow morning at the High Court in Kuala Lumpur.