PUTRAJAYA (Dec 5): The Court of Appeal has on Tuesday, unanimously allowed former Perak executive councillor and former Tronoh assemblyman Paul Yong Choo Kiong to enter three additional grounds in his petition of appeal to set-aside his rape conviction of his Indonesian maid.
A three-member bench led by Datuk Hadhariah Syed Ismail, who sat with Datuk Azman Abdullah and Datuk Azmi Ariffin, allowed Yong’s application.
This was confirmed by Yong’s counsel Datuk Hisyam Teh Poh Teik when contacted by The Edge. Hisyam appeared with Datuk Rajpal Singh and Salim Bashir.
Hisyam also said that Yong’s appeal is scheduled to be heard at the Court of Appeal on Jan 30, 2024.
The Ipoh High Court had found Yong guilty of raping his 23-year-old Indonesian maid in a room of his house in Ipoh, Perak, between 8.15pm and 9.15pm on July 7, 2019, and had sentenced him to 13 years of jail and two strokes of the rotan.
Yong, 53, was however, given a stay of execution, pending his appeal to the Court of Appeal.
The High Court on July 27 last year, allowed Yong to be released on RM30,000 bail, with one surety, and ordered him to surrender his passport to the court.
In his decision, High Court judge Datuk Abdul Wahab Mohamed said the court agreed with the prosecution that Yong’s defence — that the rape incident did not occur — was not credible, and was merely a denial and an afterthought.