Zaidi’s bid to dissolve court martial thrown out on ‘academic’ grounds

Whistleblower Zaidi Ahmad lost his bid to seek a judicial review against a five-man court ‎martial for being biased. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, February 16, 2015.

The High Court has struck out an application by whistleblower Zaidi Ahmad to commence a judicial review against a five-man court ‎martial for being biased.

Senior Federal Counsel Shamsul Bolhassan said judge Datuk Asmabi Mohamad allowed the armed forces' preliminary objection on grounds that Zaidi 's leave application to seek a judicial review was academic.

The decision was made in chambers.

He said the court had exercised its discretion to disallow the application and ordered Zaidi to pay RM2,000 in costs to the respondent.

Lawyer Azahana Mohd Khairudin, who represented Zaidi, said‎ his client could file a fresh judicial review to challenge his sacking by the panel.

Shamsul had on February 5 told Asmabi in chambers that Zaidi was found guilty and sacked by a five-man military court led by Col Saadon Hasnan on January 12.

"This judicial review to dissolve the five-man bench is academic and has been overtaken by time. He can file a fresh application to challenge his dismissal," he told reporters.

Zaidi filed a judicial review on December 11 to dissolve the bench after his application to disqualify the bench was rejected.

His application for the bench to be dissolved was based on comments allegedly made by Col Saadon.

Using a Facebook account under the name Saadon Tson, Col Saadon had allegedly made a comment in response to an article, "Peguam: Kesalahan Mejar Zaidi hanya kerana berani" (Lawyer: Major Zaidi charged for being courageous), published in Malaysiakini in its Bahasa Malaysia section on October 20, 2014.

The user named Saadon Tson had said: "klu tak nak jd tentera duk kampung motong getah je" (If you don't want to be in the military, then stay in the village and tap rubber).

As a result of the remarks, Zaidi applied to disqualify the bench‎ but was not allowed.

Zaidi then filed a judicial review to dissolve the bench‎.

The five-man bench found Zaidi guilty of breaching two standing orders: speaking to the media without the consent of the Defence Ministry and sharing confidential information on his transfer order with the media without the consent of the Armed Forces Council.

- TMI