The Supreme Court will hear additional evidence: two new Indonesian witnesses in the appeal against Paul Yong for rape in January

IPOH, Nov 26 – The High Court here has provisionally set four days before January to call two new witnesses to testify on the additional evidence submitted by former Perak councilor Paul Yong Choo Kiong against his conviction for the rape of his former Indonesian maid.

Yong’s lawyer Salim Bashir said the victim’s lawyer and a notary from Jakarta, Indonesia, would be called to testify.

“For now, both of these witnesses will certainly appear to testify before the Supreme Court here.

“For the victim, we will do our best to take her with us as well. We will inform the court if we fail to do so,” he told reporters when met outside the court.

Salim also said the Supreme Court set January 13, 14, 21 and 22 for the trial during a case management hearing before Supreme Court Deputy Registrar Nur Laila Mohamed Nazil.

“These are preliminary dates as we are not sure what the witnesses from Jakarta will say,” he added.

The prosecution was led by the Director of Public Prosecutions, Muhamad Zaki Abdul Kudos.

Besides Salim, Yong was also represented by lawyers Datuk Hisyam Teh Poh Teik and Low Wei Loke.

This came after the Federal Court allowed Yong to present additional evidence to the High Court in Ipoh in his appeal against the rape conviction.

Meanwhile, Hisyam explained that the High Court will review the additional evidence submitted by the accused during the proceedings.

“These additional pieces of evidence consist of five documents. The Supreme Court will now collect and evaluate the evidence depending on the submissions of both the suspect and the prosecutor.

“The Supreme Court will then issue an opinion and submit it to the Federal Court so that the Federal Court can use it for the applicant’s main appeal,” he said.

Hisyam also said the Federal Court has fixed December 3 for case management regarding the development at the High Court here.

On March 1 this year, in a split decision, the Court of Appeal dismissed Yong’s appeal and upheld his conviction for the rape of his 23-year-old Indonesian maid in a room in his Ipoh home between 8:15 p.m. and 9:15 p.m. on 7 July 2019.

However, the three appeal court judges had reduced Yong’s prison sentence by two strokes of the cane from thirteen to eight years.

This prompted Yong to appeal the decision to the Federal Court.

The appeal court panel had granted a stay of execution pending the hearing of the appeal in the Federal Court.

Yong was released on RM30,000 bail with one surety and ordered to surrender his passport to the court.