RPK suffers setbacks as court postpones hearing to Monday
By Lee Wei Lian, The Malaysian Insider
Raja Petra Kamarudin suffered a legal setback today when all his applications, including one to disqualify one of the sitting judges in the Federal Court, were dismissed.
The hearing for the appeal from the Home Minister to overturn the Shah Alam High Court decision last November to free Raja Petra from a two-year detention at the Kamunting Detention Centre in Perak under the Internal Security Act (ISA) was also postponed to Monday, Feb 23.
Raja Petra’s lawyers had applied to disqualify Justice Datuk S. Augustine Paul on the grounds of apparent bias as Raja Petra has written critical articles involving Judge Augustine since 1999 and the judge would be perceived as presiding over a man who has been consistently critical of him, potentially undermining public confidence in the court.
They further argued that Raja Petra’s consistent criticism of Justice Augustine could give rise to animosity and give him cause to silence the applicant and that informed third parties would perceive the judge to be prejudiced.
However, the application was rejected by the two other sitting judges, Justice Datuk Nik Hashim Nik Abdul Rahman and Justice Datuk Zulkefli Ahmad Makinudin, who said they were satisfied that the application was wholly without merit.
When the application was made earlier, Judge Augustine had excused himself from the hearing saying that his presence could be a hindrance to justice.
Upon his exit, Raja Petra’s defence team objected that the court had no power to sit with only two judges. However, the court overruled the objection.
Raja Petra’s lead counsel Malik Imtiaz Sarwar informed the court that sitting as two judges was possibly unconstitutional and reserved the right to challenge the constitutionality of the decision to sit as two judges.
Raja Petra also applied for a quorum of 5-7 judges due to the complexity of the legal issues and applied to adduce additional evidence.
Both applications were dismissed.
Raja Petra did not appear in court today. Malik said his presence “was not required.”
Nevertheless, his supporters filled the court room and extra benches had to be brought in. Among notable political leaders who appeared to show support were Penang chief minister Lim Guan Eng and PKR vice president Azmin Ali.
