PUTRAJAYA: The Federal Court has dismissed a leave application by former Tronoh assemblyman Paul Yong, who sought to review the Federal Court's decision affirming his conviction and sentence for raping his domestic helper.
A three-judge panel at the Federal Court, chaired by Chief Judge of Malaya Justice Hashim Hamzah, said Yong's application failed to meet the high threshold required under Rule 137 of the Rules of the Federal Court 1995 for a review to commence.
"We are of the view that parties have been given full opportunity. There is no breach of natural justice.
"We therefore dismiss the application," Justice Hashim said here on Friday (Feb 6).
Other judges on the bench were Federal Court judges Justices Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali and Collin Lawrence Sequerah.
Yong did not react as the decision was delivered. The 55-year-old appeared before the court, handcuffed, in an orange prison jumpsuit and with a crew cut. His family was also present in court.
Yong had filed the application for leave to review and set aside the Federal Court's decision by an earlier panel in October last year.
He is currently serving his jail sentence at Kajang Prison, beginning Oct 1, 2025, following the Federal Court's dismissal of his final appeal, which upheld his conviction and sentence.
Earlier, his lawyer, Datuk Hisyam Teh Poh Teik, argued that Yong should be granted leave to review, as the applicant had suffered a grave miscarriage of justice due to the earlier panel inadvertently denying his right to be heard.
Hisyam said a breach of natural justice occurred in the case when the learned trial judge failed to consider Yong's Section 112 statement in evidence, which he gave to the police during the investigation.
Meanwhile, Deputy Public Prosecutor Datuk Yusaini Amer Abdul Karim submitted that Yong's case was not a fit and proper case for the court to use its inherent powers to conduct a review.
He said the issues raised by the applicant had already been tried and argued, and formed the basis of the applicant's appeals to the Court of Appeal and the Federal Court.
"It is unreasonable for questions of fact and law to be relitigated at this stage. If such were the case, there would be no end to a proceeding, and it would defeat the principle of finality in a case," DPP Yusaini said.
In July 2022, the Ipoh High Court convicted and sentenced Yong to 13 years' imprisonment and two strokes of the rotan for the rape of his 23-year-old helper.
The offence was said to have been committed in a room at Yong's house in Ipoh, between 8.15pm and 9.15pm on July 7, 2019.
In March 2024, the Court of Appeal reduced his prison term to eight years while upholding the corporal punishment.
On Oct 1 last year, the Federal Court dismissed Yong's final appeal, citing that the victim was a credible and convincing witness.
The court also held it was satisfied that the victim was a credible witness and affirmed that the High Court had been correct in accepting her testimony as the basis for the conviction.
