In our le­gal sys­tem all vi­o­la­tions of the law are of­fences against the State. Once an in­fringe­ment of the law comes to the at­ten­tion of the State, es­pe­cial­ly where an in­di­vid­ual vic­tim is not nec­es­sary as a wit­ness to press charges, then the State has no op­tion but to let the law take its course. Of course, if there are no wit­ness­es or ev­i­dence, then the State can­not make a case.

But in the case where this mi­nor pub­lished the ev­i­dence on Face­book, de­fam­ing the Prime Min­is­ter etc, there can be no ex­cuse for not bring­ing her be­fore the court to an­swer the rel­e­vant charges. The PM can­not in­ter­vene on be­half of any­one and stop the process. The PM can for­give but she can­not par­don the law­break­er.

Trevor Daniel

Via e-mail