CHAPTER TWO
Offences

PART IV
OFFENCES AGAINST THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE

Escape and Related Offences

Escaping, or permitting rescue or rescuing
396. Any person who endeavours to resist or prevent the execution of the law —
(a) by escaping from lawful custody for crime;
(b) by aiding or permitting any other person to escape from lawful custody for a crime;
(c) by permitting himself or herself to be rescued from lawful custody for a crime;
(d) by rescuing any other person from lawful custody for crime,
is liable on conviction on indictment if such crime is punishable with death or with imprisonment for more than seven years, to imprisonment for fifteen years or if such crime is punishable with imprisonment for not more than seven years, to imprisonment for ten years, or, if such crime is a summary offence to imprisonment for seven years or to a fine of two thousand dollars on summary conviction.

CHAPTER THREE
Procedure

PART I
ARREST AND BAIL

Bail

Absconding
606.— (1) A person who has been released on bail commits an offence —
(a) if he or she fails without reasonable cause to surrender to custody; or
(b) if he or she, having reasonable cause for not surrendering to custody, fails to surrender to custody at the appointed time as is reasonably practicable.

(2) It shall be for the accused to prove that he or she had reasonable cause for his or her failure to surrender to custody.

(3) A failure to give to a person granted bail a copy of the decision shall not constitute a reasonable cause for his or her failure to surrender to custody.

(4) An offence under subsection (1) is punishable either on summary conviction or as if it were a criminal contempt of Court.

(5) Where a Magistrate convicts a person of an offence under subsection (1), the Magistrate may, if he or she thinks —
(a) that the circumstances of the offence are such that greater punishment should be inflicted for that offence than he or she has power to inflict; or
(b) in a case where the Court commits that person to the High Court for trial for another offence, that it would be appropriate for him or her to be dealt with for the offence under subsection (1) by the Court before which he or she is tried for the offence,
commit him or her in custody or on bail to the High Court for sentence.

(6) A person who is convicted summarily of an offence under subsection (1) and—
(a) is not committed to the High Court for sentence is liable to imprisonment for one year or to a fine of one thousand dollars;
(b) is committed to the High Court for sentence or is dealt with for contempt is liable to imprisonment for a term of two years or to a fine of five thousand dollars or to both.

(7) In any proceedings for an offence under subsection (1), a document purporting to be a copy of the part of the prescribed record that relates to the time and place appointed for the person specified in the record to surrender to custody and duly certified to be a true copy of that part of the record shall be evidence of the time and place appointed for that person to surrender to custody.

(8) For the purposes of subsection (7) —
(a) the “prescribed record” means the record of the decision of the Court, proper officer of the Court or police officer made pursuant to section 596;
(b) the copy of the prescribed record is “duly certified” once it is so certified by the proper officer of the Court or as the case may be, by the police officer who took the decision or a police officer designated for the purpose by the officer in charge of the police station from which the person to whom the record relates was released.


Arrest for absconding etc.
607.— (1) Where a person who has been released on bail and is under a duty to surrender to custody of a Court fails to surrender to custody at the time and place appointed for him or her to do so, the Court may issue a warrant for his or her arrest.

(2) Where a person who has been released on bail absents himself or herself from the Court at any time after he or she has surrendered to the custody of the Court and before the Court is ready to begin or to resume the hearing of the proceedings, the Court may issue a warrant for his or her arrest; but no warrant shall be issued uder this subsection if that person is absent in accordance with leave given to him or her by the Court.

(3) A person who has been released on bail and is under a duty to surrender into the custody of the Court may be arrested without warrant by a police officer —
(a) if the police officer has reasonable grounds for believing that person is not likely to surrender to custody;
(b) if the police officer has reasonable grounds for believing that person is likely to break any of the conditions of his or her bail or has reasonable grounds for suspecting that person has broken any of those conditions; or
(c) in a case where that person was released on bail with a surety, if a surety notifies the police in writing that the person is unlikely to surrender to custody and that for that reason the surety wishes to be relieved of his or her obligations as a surety;
(d) if new evidence justifying a further arrest has come to light since his or her release.

(4) Where in pursuance of subsection (3) —
(a) a person is arrested, that person shall be brought as soon as practicable and in any event within seventy-two hours after his or her arrest, before a Magistrate for the district in which he or she is arrested; or
(b) a person is arrested, within seventy-two hours of the time appointed for him or her to surrender to custody, he or she shall be brought without delay before the Court at which he or she is to surrender to custody.

(5) In reckoning any period of twenty-four hours for the purposes of subsection (4), no account shall be taken of public holidays and Sundays.

(6) The Magistrate before whom a person is brought under subsection (4) may, subject to subsection (7), if of the opinion that the person is not likely to surrender to custody or has broken or is likely to break any condition of his or her bail may, subject to sbsection (7)—
(a) remand him or her in custody;
(b) commit him or her to custody; or
(c) grant him or her bail subject to the same or to different conditions, otherwise may grant him or her bail subject to the same conditions if any, as were originally imposed.

(7) Where the person brought before the Magistrate is a child or young person and the Magistrate does not grant him or her bail, subsection (6) shall have effect subject to the provisions of section 21 of the Children and Young Persons Act, No. 11 of 1972.

CHAPTER THREE
Procedure

PART V
PRELIMINARY INQUIRIES AND COMMITTAL PROCEEDINGS

SUB-PART A
Jurisdiction

Proceedings in case of absconding accused
780.— (1) If at a preliminary inquiry it is proved that the accused has absconded and that there is no immediate prospect of arresting him or her the Magistrate shall, in the absence of the accused, examine the witnesses, if any, produced on behalf of the prosecution and record their depositions.

(2) On the arrest of the accused, any such deposition may be given in evidence against him or her at the inquiry into or trial of the offence with which he or she is charged, if it is proved to the satisfaction of the Magistrate or Judge —
(a) that the deponent is dead, or too ill to attend, or after diligent search he or she cannot be found; or
(b) that from any other cause he or she is incapable of giving evidence or is kept away from the trial by the contrivance of the accused;
and that the deposition is signed by the Magistrate by or before whom the deposition is purported to be taken.