KOTA KINABALU: Parti Warisan president Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal’s contempt of court case has been stayed pending the outcome of a judicial review seeking to halt the Zara Qairina Mahathir inquest.
Sessions judge Amir Shah Amir Hassan made the decision on Wednesday (Feb 11) after partly allowing a preliminary objection raised by Shafie’s counsel against a committal application for contempt of court.
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The court fixed March 27 for next mention via Zoom, and Shafie’s attendance was dispensed with.
Earlier, the court also dismissed Shafie’s preliminary objection to the issue of whether the Sessions Court or the Coroner’s Court was the proper forum to hear the contempt proceedings.
Defence counsel Chen Ket Chuin KC had earlier filed that this case was done in the wrong court, stating that the Committal Proceedings were filed and commenced in the Coroner’s Court in Papar but the Order for Leave dated Oct 23 last year was granted by the Sessions Court in Kota Kinabalu.
The argument was that the Sessions Court and the Coroner's Court are distinct tribunals with separate jurisdictions and one cannot obtain permission from Court A to sue in Court B.
For the second submission, the defence team was challenging the power of the Coroner in Sabah to hear the contempt charge.
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"The prosecution relies on general federal laws but we argue that the specific local law (Inquest Ordinance 1959) prevails and overrides general laws," Chen said.
Deputy public prosecutor Mohamad Mustaffa P. Kunyalan argued that the law was valid as it was, and the issue at hand was contempt against the Coroner’s Sessions Court.
After a 30-minute stand down, judge Amir decided to dismiss the first point as it was just a technical error presented, but allowed the second point to stay, pending the judicial review decision.
Shafie, a former chief minister, was issued a show-cause notice for his public statement about the Zara inquest on Sept 22 last year.
Following that, his lawyers informed the court that they had applied to strike out the committal proceedings on Dec 15.
