The court drama faced by Australian Dominic Jude Bird, who was freed on a drug trafficking charge by the High Court last week, is not yet over as the Court of Appeal today set tomorrow to hear an inter-parte application over his detention order obtained by the prosecution.  

Bird, 34, from Perth, was detained at the Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) in Sepang at 1.55pm on Monday, about 10 minutes before boarding the plane heading to Australia.

Police officers served him with the ex-parte court order obtained by the prosecution from the Court of Appeal at 12.45pm on Monday.

During yesterday’s proceedings before a three-man bench headed by Justice Azhar Mohamad, Bird’s lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah sought a short adjournment to facilitate the respondent to prepare his affidavit in reply to the one in support of the prosecution outlining the grounds for the re-arrest.

The two other panel members were Dr Hamid Sultan Backer and Mokhtaruddin Baki.

NONE Muhammad Shafee ( left ) told the court that Bird was arrested under Section 56A of the Courts of Judicature Act 1954 and he intended to challenge the provision of the section which was viewed as against fundamental liberty enshrined under Articles 4, 5 and 8 of the federal constitution.

“When he was arrested, the respondent had a valid visa with him and the prosecution had ignored our reminders at the open court on four occasions over the need to renew my client’s visa.

“Section 56A involves constitutional issues and are very rarely challenged in court. The prosecution and myself need time to prepare our points of law on this matter and reply to our respective affidavits,” he said.

Justice Azhar allowed Muhammad Shafee’s application after deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Bache told the court that he, too, would need time to prepare further affidavits.

Scores of journalists from Australia were present in court today.

Later, Shafee told journalists that the defence team was not questioning the right of the prosecution to file an appeal but they should have respected the court’s decision.

The senior counsel said Bird was in good spirits and looking forward to returning to Australia by the end of this week.

On Oct 4, Bird was acquitted and discharged by the Kuala Lumpur High Court after the court ruled that the defence had succeeded in raising a reasonable doubt on the prosecution’s case on the charge of trafficking methamphetamine weighing 167.8 grammes at a coffee outlet in Jalan Yap Kwan Seng in Kuala Lumpur on March 1 last year.

However, the Australian was detained by Immigration officers on the same day as his visa had expired.

- Bernama