Appeals court affirms conviction, reduces jail sentence against ex-Tronoh assemblyman
Bernama
Mac 1, 2024
File pic by BERNAMA
PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal here today reduced the 13-year imprisonment of former Tronoh Assemblyman Paul Yong Choo Kiong for raping his maid to eight years jail with two strokes of the cane.
In a 2-1 majority decision, Justice Datuk Hadhariah Syed Ismail, who chaired the panel with Justice Datuk Azman Abdullah, affirmed the conviction against Yong while Justice Datuk S.M. Komathy Suppiah dissented.
On July 27, 2022, the High Court in Ipoh found Yong guilty of raping his 23-year-old Indonesian maid in his house in Ipoh, Perak between 8.15 pm and 9.15 pm on July 7, 2019.
It follows the court upholding the guilty conviction with a majority decision of 2-1, from Hadhariah and Judge, Datuk Azman Abdullah.
These two judges rejected Paul's appeal as an appellant to set aside his conviction, while Judge Datuk SM Komathy opposed the majority decision.
The court granted a stay of sentence for the defense to file an appeal in the Federal Court.
When reading the majority judgment, Azman opined that the high court judge did not err in his decision when convicting the appellant.
According to him, the judge also found the victim to be a reliable witness.
Hisyam Teh led the defense team of the former Tronoh assemblyman
"The trial judge found that the appellant had the opportunity to rape the victim when he was alone at home, that is after his wife went out to a restaurant for 30 minutes.
"Therefore, the court is of the opinion that it is possible that the rape incident could have happened, even though there is no evidence to show that the house (the location of the incident) was broken into, or that the victim had sexual relations with another man," he said.
Based on the facts he said, the newly torn hymen and abrasion on the vagina was caused by the appellant, as claimed by the victim.
Azman said, the court did not agree with the appellant's argument, that the investigation of this case was not complete but rather it was satisfactory and the appellant was not prejudiced.
Following that, the majority decision found, there is no merit in the appeal and the conviction of the appellant is safe.
Meanwhile, while reading the opposition decision, Komathy said that after the appellant's wife returned home, the victim was reported to be behaving suspiciously, as if no rape had occurred.
According to him, the victim's version of the statement is also inconsistent, which is between experiencing sexual harassment or being treated badly by the employer (appellant).
"In addition, there is no deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) test evidence to link the appellant to the offence, and even the injuries suffered by the victim are not consistent with the facts.
"Following that, the contradiction in his testimony is enough to raise clear doubts in the prosecution's case," he said.
When met after the proceedings, lawyer Datuk Hisyam Teh Poh Teik who represented Paul said that the defense respects the court's decision but will file an appeal in the Federal Court in the near future.
"We respect the majority decision and at the same time, there is a strong dissent given by Judge Komathy.
"This matter will be taken to the highest court, where all issues will be discussed again," he said.
In this proceeding, the prosecution as the respondent was represented by the Deputy Public Prosecutor, Fuad Abdul Aziz.
On 27 July 2022, Ipoh High Court Judge, Perak, Datuk Abdul Wahab Mohamed found Paul guilty of raping a 23-year-old Indonesian maid in his room in the district, between 8.15 and 9.15 pm, 7 July 2019.
Following that, he who is a former Exco of the Perak State Government was sentenced to 13 years in prison and two lashes.
The court granted a stay of sentence for the defense to file an appeal at the Court of Appeal.
Abdul Wahab when reading his judgment said, the defense is only a denial and a calculation is a thought.
While testifying in his defense under oath, Paul stated that the alleged rape was a political conspiracy to topple the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government which won the 14th General Election (GE-14) with a margin of three votes.
Also called as defense witnesses are his wife, Too Choon Looi and the victim's uncle.
Paul was accused in the Ipoh Sessions Court on 23 August 2019 and ordered to defend himself on the charge on 7 December 2021.
On December 15, 2020, the Federal Court ordered the case to be transferred to the High Court of the same district.
The trial of the case began on 5 April 2021 with 23 witnesses including two protected witnesses being called to testify as prosecution witnesses.
On December 1 last year, Hisyam was informed that he would lead the defense team in Paul's ex-convict's appeal against the conviction, the sentence with lawyers Datuk Rajpal Singh and Salim Bashir in the appeal.
The charge framed under Section 376 (1) of the Penal Code. It provides a jail term of up to 20 years and is liable to whipping.
