Apex court bins Paul Yong's leave bid to review rape conviction, sentence

 

The Federal Court today dismissed a leave application by former Tronoh assemblyperson Paul Yong Choo Kiong to review the decision of the previous panel of the Federal Court that upheld his conviction and sentence for the rape of his domestic helper seven years ago.

A three-member Federal Court panel led by Chief Judge of Malaya Hashim Hamzah, in a unanimous decision, said this application failed to meet the high threshold required under Rule 137 of the Rules of the Federal Court 1995 for a review to commence.

“We are of the view that parties have been given full opportunity. There is no breach of natural justice. We therefore dismiss the application," said Hashim.

The other two Federal Court judges presiding on the bench were Nazlan Ghazali and Collin Lawrence Sequerah.

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Yong, 55, is serving his jail sentence at the Kajang Prison after the Federal Court had on Oct 1, 2025, dismissed his final appeal and upheld his conviction and sentence.

Grave miscarriage of justice

Earlier, Yong’s counsel, Hisyam Teh Poh Teik, submitted that Yong should be granted leave to review as the applicant had suffered a grave miscarriage of justice due to his right to be heard being inadvertently denied by the earlier panel.

Hisyam Teh Poh Teik

He said a breach of natural justice occurred in the case when the learned trial judge had failed to consider Yong's Section 112 statement in evidence, which was the statement he gave to the police during the investigation.

Deputy public prosecutor Yusaini Amer Abdul Karim said the facts and law raised by the applicant had been presented and argued in detail at the Court of Appeal and Federal Court levels before the previous panel.

“It is inappropriate for the questions of fact and law to be re-litigated at this stage. If that is the case, then there is no finality in the proceedings,” he said.

The High Court had, in July 2022, sentenced Yong to 13 years' imprisonment and two strokes of the cane. In March 2024, the Court of Appeal reduced his prison term to eight years while upholding the corporal punishment.

The High Court found him guilty of raping the 23-year-old Indonesian domestic helper at his Ipoh residence between 8.15pm and 9.15pm on July 7, 2019.

In a unanimous ruling dismissing Yong's final appeal, the Federal Court held that the victim was a credible and convincing witness.

The court also affirmed that the High Court had been correct in accepting her testimony as the basis for the conviction.

- Bernama