Jailed 75-year-old freed pending appeal in RM60mil matrimonial asset case

 The man who spent 22 days in prison for contempt of court was granted a stay of the sentence on account of his age and poor health.

The Court of Appeal has scheduled Oct 1 to hear an appeal from the High Court’s judgment ordering the equal distribution of a matrimonial estate worth RM60 million between husband and wife.

PUTRAJAYA:

 The Court of Appeal has freed a 75-year-old man, who spent 22 days at Kajang prison for contempt of court in a RM60 million matrimonial assets dispute, granting him a stay of sentence on account of his age and poor health.

Justice Ismail Brahim said the man had shown special circumstances to warrant the stay.

“We are using our discretion under Section 44 of the Courts of Judicature Act 1964 to grant the stay pending the disposal of the appeal,” Ismail said when delivering the court’s unanimous decision.

The appeal is scheduled to be heard on Oct 1.

Ismail, the bench chairman, sat with Justice Aliza Sulaiman to hear the husband’s application.

Lawyers Goh Siu Lin and Denise Lim appeared for the wife, while counsel Shamesh Jeevaretnam and Tan Zhe Yoong represented the husband.

On Jan 19, Justice M Sumathi issued a warrant of arrest against the husband, anonymised as PAI, for contempt of court after he failed to comply with an order to divide matrimonial assets with his 73-year-old wife, identified as HAI.

A month earlier, Sumathi imposed a daily fine of RM20,000 on the husband until he complies with the order made following their judicial separation. The judge also gave the husband 30 days to comply, or risk imprisonment.

The committal application concerned the husband’s failure to comply with a judgment delivered by Justice Evrol Mariette Peters on Nov 24, 2024, in which the wife was awarded half of the couple’s matrimonial assets, valued at RM60 million.

Peters, now a Court of Appeal judge, also ordered a 38-year-old woman, named as a co-respondent in the suit, to pay HAI RM200,000 in damages for her role in ruining a marriage that had spanned five decades.

The couple was married in 1977.

The wife filed for judicial separation in October 2022, claiming her husband had confessed to an adulterous relationship with his mistress. - FMT