VIDEO | 2:21 mins

Come Tuesday, Australian Dominic Jude Bird will know whether he can return to his country or be detained further, pending disposal of the prosecution’s appeal against his acquittal on a drug trafficking charge by the high court last week.

A three-man Court of Appeal (COA) bench led by Justice Azhar Mohamad set Sept 17 for its decision after hearing lengthy submissions from Bird’s counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah and deputy public prosecutors Ahmad Bache and head of the Appeals Unit of the Attorney-General’s Chambers, Saiful Edris Zainuddin.

Azhar told the respondent (Bird) that the court needed to deliberate further on the matter since the application involved interpretation of Section 56A of the Courts of Judicature Act (CJA) 1964 and constitutional issues raised by his counsel.

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

Ahmad, during his submission, told the court that although Bird was freed by the High Court, the full hearing of the criminal procedure against the respondent was not over.

“Justice is not only done to the accused but also to the public and the state, to ensure that the right of the prosecution to appeal is not rendered academic or nugatory, as a result of the absence or non-attendance of an accused,” he argued.

Meanwhile, Saiful Edris submitted that the respondent had failed to state how Section 56A of the CJA had violated his liberty and his constitutional rights.

Muhammad Shafee argued that the first re-arrest on Sept 4 and second arrest at the Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) on Sept 9 were illegal, and the court should not sanction them by allowing the prosecution’s application for further detention of his client, pending disposal of the appeal.

“He was not running away from this country, but actually was escorted by immigration officers to the LCCT, and the High Court order to free him stands until the decision is overturned,” he contended.

He described the warrant of arrest obtained by the prosecution from COA on Monday, as a “bogus warrant” and an incursion of Bird’s liberty.

On Sept 4, Bird was acquitted and discharged by the Kuala Lumpur High Court after ruling 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