# SOSMA (Act 747): The Special Procedures Malaysia Uses for Security Offences

> Statute page for the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (Act 747). It sets out, textually and descriptively, what the Act is, which offences it applies to through the First Schedule, and the special procedural measures it provides — arrest and 28-day investigative detention, interception of communication, electronic monitoring, bail, trial in the High Court, protected witnesses and the special rules of evidence.

- Category: law
- Language: en
- Status: published
- Updated: 2026-07-24
- Canonical: https://negaraku.md/en/law/sosma

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SOSMA creates no crimes. Open Act 747 looking for the offence it punishes and you will
not find one — every offence it deals with is defined somewhere else, chiefly in the
Penal Code. What the Act supplies is a set of *procedures*: how a person may be
arrested and held, how communications may be intercepted, how bail is decided, where
the trial is held, and how evidence and witnesses are handled once a case is treated
as a **security offence**.

This page is the statute record for Act 747 — its identity, its scope, and the special
measures it provides, described as the text sets them out. It does not discuss any
prosecution, any individual, or any argument for or against the Act.

## At a glance

| | |
| --- | --- |
| Short title | Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (SOSMA) |
| Act number | Act 747 |
| Long title | "An Act to provide for special measures relating to security offences for the purpose of maintaining public order and security and for connected matters" |
| Royal Assent | 18 June 2012 |
| Published in the Gazette | 22 June 2012 |
| Came into operation | 31 July 2012, by P.U. (B) 256/2012 |
| Structure | 8 Parts, 32 sections, 2 Schedules |
| Applies to | "Security offences" — offences specified in the First Schedule |

## What makes an offence a "security offence"

The whole Act turns on one defined phrase. Section 2 states simply that the Act applies
to security offences, and section 3 defines a **security offence** as an offence
specified in the **First Schedule**.

The First Schedule does not restate offences in full. It points to existing provisions
of the [Penal Code](/en/law/penal-code) — its offences under **Chapter VI**
(offences against the State) and **Chapter VIA** (offences relating to terrorism). The
Schedule can be amended, so the current list should be read from the up-to-date text
of the Act rather than assumed.

The practical consequence is a gate. Nothing in Act 747 attaches to a person until the
offence in question is one the First Schedule captures. Everything below is what
follows once that gate is passed.

## The eight Parts

The Act is organised into eight Parts, and the Part headings are themselves a map of
the special measures:

| Part | Heading |
| --- | --- |
| I | Preliminary |
| II | Special Powers for Security Offences |
| III | Special Procedures Relating to Electronic Monitoring Device |
| IV | Special Procedures Relating to Sensitive Information |
| V | Trial |
| VI | Special Procedures Relating to Protected Witness |
| VII | Evidence |
| VIII | Miscellaneous |

## Part II — arrest, detention and interception

**Section 4 (arrest and detention)** is the most-cited provision. Its subsections build
up in sequence:

- **4(1)** — a police officer may, without warrant, arrest and detain any person whom he
  has reason to believe to be involved in security offences.
- **4(2)** — the person arrested shall be informed as soon as may be of the grounds of
  arrest.
- **4(3)** — no person shall be arrested and detained under the section *solely* for his
  political belief or political activity. Subsection 4(12) defines what political belief
  and political activity mean, tying them to lawful activity through registered political
  parties and lawful expression directed at a government.
- **4(4)** — the person may be detained for **twenty-four hours** for the purpose of
  investigation.
- **4(5)** — a police officer **of or above the rank of Superintendent of Police** may
  extend the detention for a period of **not more than twenty-eight days**, for the
  purpose of investigation.
- **4(6)–(8)** — instead of continued detention, the person may be released with an
  **electronic monitoring device** attached, on a report to the Public Prosecutor.

Section 4 also carries a built-in review clause: the extended-detention power in
subsection (5) is subject to periodic parliamentary review rather than being open-ended
in time.

**Section 5 (notification and access to counsel)** requires the investigating officer to
notify the next-of-kin of the arrest and, subject to a limited exception, to allow the
person to consult a legal practitioner of his choice. Under section 5(2) an officer not
below the rank of Superintendent may authorise a delay of **not more than forty-eight
hours** for that consultation where he believes it would, for example, interfere with
evidence, lead to harm, alert other suspects, or hinder recovery of property.

**Section 6 (interception of communication)** allows the Public Prosecutor to authorise
interception of communications likely to contain information relating to a security
offence, and permits an officer not below the rank of Superintendent to intercept in
urgent cases. Information so obtained is later made admissible by section 24.

A recurring textual feature runs through this Part. Sections 5(3) and 6, among others,
state that they have effect **"notwithstanding anything inconsistent with Article 5 of
the Federal Constitution"** — Article 5 being the liberty-of-the-person guarantee in
the [fundamental liberties](/en/law/fundamental-liberties) of the
[Federal Constitution](/en/law/federal-constitution). The Act sets these clauses out
expressly rather than leaving the relationship implied.

## Parts III and IV — monitoring and sensitive information

Part III governs the **electronic monitoring device** already introduced in section 4:
how it is applied for, attached and dealt with. Part IV governs **sensitive
information**, a term section 3 defines broadly to include material relating to Cabinet
and State Executive Councils, sovereignty, national security, defence, public order and
international relations, at any classification level. Its provisions restrict how such
information is produced and disclosed in proceedings, including a requirement (section 9)
that an accused give advance notice of an intention to disclose sensitive information in
his defence.

## Part V — trial and bail

**Section 12** provides that all security offences **shall be tried by the High Court**.
Which courts sit where is set out in the [court hierarchy](/en/law/court-hierarchy).

**Section 13 (bail)** states that bail **shall not be granted** to a person charged with
a security offence. It then carves out narrow exceptions: a person **below the age of
eighteen**, a **woman**, or a person who is **sick or infirm** may be released, subject
to the conditions the section imposes and to an application for an electronic monitoring
device. The exceptions do not extend to a person charged with an offence under **Chapter
VIA** of the Penal Code (the terrorism chapter).

## Part VI — protected witnesses

Part VI provides for a **protected witness**, defined in section 3 as a witness whose
exposure would jeopardise the gathering of evidence or intelligence, or jeopardise his
life and well-being.

- **Section 14** allows a witness's evidence to be given **in a special manner** — so
  that the witness is not seen or heard by the accused and counsel, but is visible to
  the court — after the court holds an inquiry, in camera, to satisfy itself of the need
  to protect that identity.
- **Section 15** governs identification where evidence is taken in camera.
- **Section 16** makes it an offence to publish anything revealing a protected witness's
  identity.

## Part VII — special rules of evidence

Part VII sets out evidence rules that apply to security-offence trials, and section 17
states that the Part has effect **notwithstanding anything inconsistent with the
Evidence Act 1950**. Among its provisions:

| Section | Subject |
| --- | --- |
| 18 | Admissibility of statements by a person who is dead, cannot be found, or is incapable of giving evidence |
| 19 | Conviction on the uncorroborated evidence of a child of tender years, where the court is satisfied as to the child's understanding |
| 20–22 | Admissibility of documents seized, identification evidence, and search lists |
| 23 | Non-production of exhibits protected under sections 8 and 11 not to prejudice the prosecution |
| 24 | Admissibility of information obtained by interception of communication under section 6 |
| 25 | Admissibility of documents produced by computers |
| 26 | Evidence of an accomplice and of an agent provocateur |

## Part VIII — miscellaneous

The final Part collects operational provisions. **Section 27** allows a Sessions Court
Judge to record a statement or confession before trial; **section 28** protects the
identity of an informer; **section 29** gives an investigating officer access to a
person already detained or imprisoned under other law. **Section 30** provides that where
a court acquits a person of a security offence, the Public Prosecutor may apply orally
for the person to be remanded in prison pending appeal, and the person is held until the
appeal process is exhausted. **Section 31** is the regulation-making power.

## Reading the right text

The AGC Laws of Malaysia record for Act 747 lists the principal Act of 2012 together
with later amendments — recorded on the portal as amendments in 2015 and 2024 — and an
online reprint. Because the First Schedule and individual sections have been amended,
any live question should be checked against the current consolidated text on the AGC
portal rather than the 2012 print or a cached copy.

## What's next

This page fixes what SOSMA *is* and the special measures it *contains*. The individual
mechanisms — investigative detention, interception, protected witnesses and the special
evidence rules — each sit against the ordinary criminal procedure of the
[Penal Code](/en/law/penal-code) and the guarantees in the
[Federal Constitution](/en/law/federal-constitution), and can be traced in more detail
from there.

For any specific provision, start from the First Schedule: if the offence is not listed
there, none of Act 747's special measures apply to it.

## Sources

- Act 747 — Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (full text) — https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/20120622_747_BI_Act%20747%20BI.pdf (Attorney General's Chambers of Malaysia)
- Act 747 — Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012, principal Act record and timeline — https://lom.agc.gov.my/act-detail.php?act=747&lang=BI (Attorney General's Chambers of Malaysia)
- Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 — reprint text (section-by-section) — https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Security_Offences_(Special_Measures)_Act_2012 (Wikisource (transcription of the Laws of Malaysia reprint of Act 747))
- Penal Code (Act 574), Chapters VI and VIA — reprint — https://lom.agc.gov.my/act-detail.php?act=574&lang=BI (Attorney General's Chambers of Malaysia)

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