The Appeals Court today granted leave of application to Batu MP Tian Chua's to appeal against his conviction for biting a police officer.

NONE Judges Suriyadi Halim Omar, Hasan Lah and Ahmad Maarop unanimously agreed that the High Court had erred in its judgment as it had not considered all the evidence.

Suriyadi questioned how High Court Judge Ghazali Cha was able to conclude that the earlier conviction by the magistrate's court was valid, without even viewing the DVD video that documented the incident.

He noted that while Tian ( right ), was appealing his case at the High Court, it is considered a re-trial and requires the judge to review all evidence tendered in the previous trial.

"The DVD is pertinent in this issue. It would have been right (for the High Court judge) to view the DVD and wrong to not view it," he said.

NONE Tian will now have 14 days from today to file his appeal through his lawyers, Ranjit Singh and Amer Hamzah Arshad ( left ).

Questions of law

The PKR man is appealing against his conviction based on several grounds outlined by a list of 12 questions of law.

Aside from the relevance of the said DVD video in the High Court appeal, they are also arguing against the magistrate's use of another DVD video as a reference before it was admitted as evidence.

Tian is also challenging the High Court's ruling that a person cannot resist an illegal arrest and can only seek legal redress in the event of an illegal arrest.

Another point of contention is the prosecution's failure to call the officer who ordered Tian Chua's arrest as a witness, raising the question of how far this could affect the case.

They however will not appeal against his sentence, which Ranjit said they are "quite happy with".

Tian Chua was found guilty in October last year by the magistrate's court for biting a police during a political rally outside of Parliament in 2007. He was ordered to six months jail and slapped with a RM3,000 fine.

He appealed at the High Court, which upheld his conviction but reduced his sentence to just a fine of RM2,000 fine in June this year.