Charging a dead cop

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - A Malaysian judge scolded government prosecutors for filing a corruption charge against a policeman who died two years ago, a news report said Thursday.

Sessions Court Judge Noradidah Ahmad, who was presiding over a bribery case, was surprised Wednesday when she noticed court documents stating that one of two policemen accused in the case had died after a stroke in 2005, the New Straits Times newspaper reported.

"We do not have to include a dead man in the charge. Dead people cannot testify," Noradidah was quoted as saying by the newspaper. "It's 2007 now, surely the prosecution had time to amend the charge. It is not as if he died yesterday."

The dead policeman, Che Amil Che Rus, was jointly accused with his former colleague of allegedly accepting a bribe of 1,000 ringgit ($292) from a relative of a criminal suspect in 2004, the report said.