PUTRAJAYA, June 20 — The Federal Court has fixed August 27 to hear former Tronoh assemblyman Paul Yong Choo Kiong’s appeal against his conviction and imprisonment for allegedly raping his maid.
One of his lawyers, Datuk Hisyam Teh Poh Teik, confirmed the hearing date with Bernama following a case management today. Also representing the accused is lawyer Datuk Rajpal Singh.
He is appealing against the Court of Appeal’s decision in upholding the decision of the High Court which convicted him for raping his 23-year-old Indonesian maid.
In July 2022, the High Court sentenced Yong to 13 years imprisonment, but in March last year the Court of Appeal reduced the sentence to eight years.
He was alleged to have committed the offence in a room at his house in Ipoh, between 8.15pm and 9.15pm on July 7, 2019.
The Court of Appeal, in a 2-1 majority decision, dismissed the accused's appeal against his conviction but reduced his prison sentence to eight years, along with two strokes of the cane.
However, the appellate court granted a stay of execution, pending disposal of the appeal at the Federal Court, and Yong was released on RM30,000 bail with one surety and ordered to surrender his passport to the court.
In March this year, the High Court in Ipoh, Perak, dismissed his application to submit additional evidence in his appeal.
A lawyer for the maid had testified in the High Court that the woman has withdrawn her rape allegations against the accused and she made the retraction through a statutory declaration affirmed in Indonesia.
— Bernama
