Woman Rape Claim Retraction Against Paul Yong Is Hearsay

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A Ipoh High Court judge is of the view that the testimony of the lawyer of an Indonesian domestic worker that she has retracted her rape allegations against former Perak executive councillor Paul Yong was mere hearsay.
Judge Abdul Wahab Mohamed gave the opinion today regarding the additional evidence that Yong sought to rely on to quash his rape conviction as well as eight-year jail sentence and two rotan strokes.
In confirming what transpired before the High Court earlier today, Yong's counsel Salim Bashir pointed out that it is ultimately up to the Federal Court on how much weight to give to the additional evidence.
The defence counsel pointed out that the High Court judge's opinion would be shared with the apex court, which is set to hear Yong's appeal on March 17.
“It is only an opinion by the High Court whereby it is left to the Federal Court whether to accept or reject the opinion.
“The High Court's opinion was made over relevancy, authenticity and hearsay rules.
"The High Court also noted that the non-attendance of the (alleged) victim and inability of the defence team to state why the victim could not herself be present (at the High Court) led to the victim's written statement (statutory declaration or SD) as hearsay evidence," Salim said when contacted.
Not an exception
The High Court today noted that the additional evidence failed to fall within the exception to hearsay under Section 32(1) of the Evidence Act 1950.
While hearsay evidence is generally not admissible in court, Section 32(1) provides an exception where such evidence could be admissible, usually dealing with statements by someone unable to testify in court under certain circumstances.
Back on Feb 5 during the High Court hearing to determine the weight of the additional evidence, the maid's lawyer Pathurrahman SH testified that she had withdrawn her rape claims.
The counsel said the woman made the retraction through a statutory declaration affirmed in Indonesia.
Bid granted
On Nov 12 last year, the Federal Court granted Yong's application to introduce additional evidence in his appeal against his conviction.
The three-judge panel led by Harmindar Singh Dhaliwal allowed five documents to be admitted as additional evidence, describing them as significant because they appear to indicate that the victim may have provided false testimony during Yong's trial.
On March 1 last year, the Court of Appeal, in a split decision, dismissed Yong's appeal and upheld his conviction for raping his 23-year-old Indonesian maid in a room at his house in Ipoh between 8.15pm and 9.15pm on July 7, 2019.
However, the appellate court’s three-judge panel reduced Yong’s prison sentence from 13 years to eight, with two strokes of the cane.
Yong subsequently appealed the decision to the Federal Court.
The appellate court granted a stay of execution pending the outcome of the appeal. Yong was released on RM30,000 bail with one surety and ordered to surrender his passport to the court.
In 2022, the High Court convicted and sentenced Yong, leading to his appeal before the Court of Appeal. - Mkini

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