Rantau returning officer freed by Court of Appeal from contempt conviction
The Court of Appeal today has set aside a contempt of court conviction against Election Commission (EC) returning officer Amino Agus Suyub, who last year was found guilty of coaching a witness in an election petition hearing.
According to his lawyer G Rajasingam, a three-member COA panel made a unanimous decision to allow Amino's appeal against the conviction by Seremban Election Court...
The Court of Appeal today has set aside a contempt of court conviction against Election Commission (EC) returning officer Amino Agus Suyub, who last year was found guilty of coaching a witness in an election petition hearing.
According to his lawyer G Rajasingam, a three-member COA panel made a unanimous decision to allow Amino's appeal against the conviction by Seremban Election Court.
Rajasingam said the higher court also set aside Amino's three-month jail sentence, and ordered for the case to be reheard by the High Court.
"We were arguing that there was serious procedural unfairness (in Agus' contempt proceedings), and because of this, his constitutional rights to a fair trial was denied under Article 5 and 8 of the Federal Constitution.
"So, the court agreed, and thus they set aside the conviction, the sentencing, and remitted it back to the high court," he told Malaysiakini when contacted today.
Amino, who was the returning officer for Rantau election last year, was found in contempt of court by Justice Azimah Omar after finding him guilty of sending text messages to his assistant, Daing Muhamad Rahimi, in order to coach Daing on how to answer questions.
This happened during the trial for an election petition filed by Dr S Streram for the Rantau state seat, in which Amino and Daing were called to testify.
According to the COA's written grounds of judgment sighted by Malaysiakini, the panel of judges found that the Election Court had relied on previous cases that have no relevance when convicting Amino of contempt of court, among others.
They also ruled that the High Court judge hearing the retrial to have a look at court recordings from Amino's previous proceedings, and determine whether the retrial would be a partly or wholly rehearing.
The COA was presided by Justices Hamid Sultan Abu Backer, Hanipah Farikullah and Kamaludin Md Said.
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