Former Perak exco Paul Yong’s rape trial pushed to December as lawyers grounded by CMCO
IPOH, October 19 — The Session Court set December 21 to 23 hear the case of former Perak executive council member Paul Yong Choo Kiong who was charged with raping an Indonesian maid.
Judge Norashima Khalid fixed the dates after two of Yong’s lawyers, Datuk Rajpal Singh and Salim Bashir, could not attend the trial, which was set for today, due to the conditional movement control order (CMCO) in the Klang Valley.
Deputy public prosecutor Azhar Mokhtar prosecuted while Yong’s was represented by Farhan Sapian and Surindar Singh today.
Norashima set November 20 for case management.
Farhan, when met by reporters outside the court, said that the defence team was also waiting for the Federal Court to fix a new trial date for the application to transfer the case to High Court.
“Supposedly, the trial for the application to move the case to High Court should have took place last Wednesday, but it could not be proceed due to the implementation of CMCO there,” he said.
On August 23 last year, Yong, who is the Tronoh assemblyman, pleaded not guilty at the Session’s Court to raping a 23-year-old maid at his residence in 52, Desa Meru 2, Meru Desa Park, Meru Raya here on July 7, between 8.15pm and 9.15pm.
On December 5, 2019, the court set February 10 to 14 this year, to hear the case.
However, the trial has been deferred several times as the defence team was trying to transfer the case to the High Court.
On November 26 last year, the High Court here dismissed Yong’s application to transfer his rape trial from the Sessions Court by stating that the issued raised by the defence team is not complex and the Sessions Court judge is competent and capable enough to hear the case.
On Feb 10 this year, the Court of Appeal dismissed Yong’s application at the Federal Court on grounds that there was no appealable error by the High Court judicial commissioner in refusing Yong’s application to transfer the case to the High Court.
Yong then filed an appeal at the Federal Court against the Court of Appeal’s decision on February 11, and the matter is still pending.
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