PUTRAJAYA (Nov 8): The Court of Appeal on Wednesday unanimously dismissed a motion by lawyer Mohd Hatta Sanuri to adduce further evidence, namely a press statement issued by former attorney general Tan Sri Idrus Harun in January, for his appeal in connection with the government's decision to withdraw a review application over the International Court of Justice's (ICJ) decision over the Pulau Batu Puteh claim.
A three-member bench led by Datuk Supang Lian ruled that Idrus' opinion does not constitute further evidence as stipulated under Section 69 of the Evidence Act, and that the statement is not relevant in Hatta’s two appeals.
The other two members of the bench were Datuk Hashim Hamzah and Datuk Wong Kian Kheong.
Hatta’s counsel Mohaji Selamat wanted Idrus' statement, which was made on Jan 27, to be used in his appeal over his misfeasance suit against the federal government and the prime minister over Malaysia’s decision to drop the Pulau Batu Puteh appeal in 2018.
Mohaji told the bench that the statement made by Idrus about the withdrawal of the appeal was not in order and improper.
He said the statement should be admitted as it is relevant to his case to show misfeasance, as the suit was struck out by the court without going through a full trial.
He added that the statement made by Idrus was not available when the case was decided, and hence should be admitted.
The hearing of Hatta’s appeal is fixed for Nov 15.
On July 1 last year, Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Hayatul Akmal Abdul Aziz allowed the federal government’s application to strike out Hatta’s suit on the grounds that the issue raised was non-justiciable and touched on foreign policy.
Hayatul Akmal also said Hatta did not have the locus standi (legal standing) in initiating the suit.
Senior federal counsel Ahmad Hanir Hambaly objected to Idrus' statement being admitted as it was not relevant to the suit at hand.
He added that the issue with regard to the appeal over the suit being struck out was whether Hatta was right in filing a suit which is considered non-justiciable as it touches on foreign policy.
“The statement has no bearing to the suit at hand, and hence the motion should be dismissed,” he said, adding the other appeal by Hatta was over the documents deemed classified by the government and court, which should not be released to the public.
In 2018, the Pakatan Harapan government under then prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad withdrew an application to overturn the ICJ's ruling awarding legal jurisdiction of Pulau Batu Puteh to Singapore before the case was scheduled to be heard on June 11, 2018.
This resulted in Hatta, 46, filing the suit on May 28, 2021 on behalf of himself and the more than 32 million Malaysians affected by the withdrawal of the review application, which was made without discussing and tabling it first in Parliament.
In his statement of claim, he sought an order for the defendants to provide a written explanation as to why they withdrew the review on June 1, 2018, when they claimed that Malaysia had strong evidence to initiate the review, which was initiated and filed since Feb 3, 2017 by the Barisan Nasional government.