Tian Chua says will mount legal challenge if disqualified

By Clara Chooi

May 25, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, May 25 — Batu MP Chua Tian Chang revealed today that he has no intention of appealing his cop-biting conviction to the Federal Court despite facing the possibility of losing his parliamentary seat.

But the PKR man said he would mount a legal challenge if he were to be disqualified as an MP.

The first-term lawmaker told The Malaysian Insider that he anticipated the apex court would likely dismiss any appeal against conviction on technical grounds like the Court of Appeal did on Monday.

“My case was dismissed on technical grounds and the whole issue, if you go by detail, is not on my criminal conviction ... the Court of Appeal and the Federal Court cannot examine facts (of the case) but the question of law.

“So if I go to the Federal Court, it will be the same outcome,” he said.

Chua also pointed out that his seat status has never been an issue of contention in his appeal to the Court of Appeal.

Under Article 48 of the Federal Constitution, Chua faces being disqualified as an MP because he was fined “not less than” RM2,000. — file pic

“So here, I lose my chance to prove that I did not bite the policeman ... nothing to do with my seat,” he said.

Chua, however, acknowledged that the matter could still be raised in Parliament for debate and by the sheer force of its majority, Barisan Nasional (BN) backbenchers could still table a motion to disqualify him from his seat.

“But if they did this, it is clear that they are going after me, a blatant use of brute majority to remove me,” he said.

Should this occur, added Chua, he would then go back to the Court of Appeal to seek an affirmation of the High Court’s ruling last year that he may retain his seat.

The High Court, in hearing Chua’s appeal against his cop-biting conviction by a magistrate’s court in 2008, had last year agreed to reduce the sentence to a RM2,000 fine in default of two months’ jail.

In its report last year, The Star quoted Justice Ghazali Cha as saying if the earlier sentence meted out on Chua were to stand, it would disqualify him from remaining an MP and a by-election would have to be called.

“It is known that this by-election requires huge expenditure and affects the people’s wellbeing and harmony among the races.

“On these grounds, I opine that a sentence which is commensurable, which does not affect many parties, is a fair sentence. The sentence handed down by the magistrate is set aside and substituted with a RM2,000 fine in default of two months’ jail,” he reportedly said in his ruling.

Under Article 48 of the Federal Constitution and preceding cases, Chua stands to be disqualified as an MP because he was fined “not less than” RM2,000.