PUTRAJAYA, July 26 — The Court of Appeal today dismissed the application filed by a housewife accused of murdering a waiter to lower her RM500,000 bail amount.
Ng Hui Yee will have to go back to the Shah Alam High Court to apply for a reduction of her bail.
Justice Datuk Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera, who led the three-member bench said the High Court can hear Ng's application under Section 389 of the Criminal Procedure Code, adding the court agreed with the preliminary objection raised by the prosecution that Ng was allowed to file an application for the High Court to consider her request to vary the terms of the bail order.
He said the High Court can consider Ng’s application as it is not functus officio (once the court made a decision it does not have the power to re-examine that decision).
Justices Datuk Che Mohd Ruzima Ghazali and Datuk Wong Kian Kheong also presided on the bench.
On May 24, the Shah Alam High Court released Ng on RM500,000 bail pending trial under Section 388 of the Criminal Procedure Code which states a person accused of an unbailable offence can ask to be released on bail, however, she has yet to post the amount due to the high quantum imposed and is currently remanded at Kajang prison.
Ng, 33, and her husband Khor Swee Boon, 30, were jointly charged with killing Cho Lim Fong, who died of severe injuries when a parcel left on the bonnet of his car exploded outside a restaurant along Jalan Pandan Indah 1/22, Kuala Lumpur at 8.55pm on December 29, last year.
In today's proceeding, Deputy Public Prosecutor Ng Siew Wee raised a preliminary objection saying Ng’s application is incompetent and the appellate court should not entertain the request as she has yet to exhaust her right to apply for a variation of the bail order in the High Court.
Ng’s counsel, RSN Rayer asked the court to reduce the bail amount to an affordable sum of RM20,000, arguing that it was unfair for his client to be kept in prison when she was entitled to bail but the High Court judge fixed bail at RM50,000.
— Bernama
