Blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin has filed an application for a review of the Federal Court's decision on Tuesday dismissing his application to have Justice S Augustine Paul recused from hearing the Home Ministry's appeal against his release from detention under the Internal Security Act.

raja petra Raja Petra, 58, filed the application through his solicitors from law firm Mathews Hun Kandiah, with an affirmed affidavit signed by the blogger who is the online editor of popular website Malaysia Today .

The application was filed today at the Federal Court's registry in Putrajaya.

Raja Petra cited three grounds to support his application:

  • the apparent bias against Paul was not addressed when the two-member panel, comprising Nik Hashim Nik Ab Rahman and Zulkefli Ahmad Makinuddin, heard his application;

  • there was no basis in law for the two-member panel to invoke section 78(1) of the Courts of Judicature Act, 1964, regarding the continuation of proceedings notwithstanding the absence of a judge; and

  • the determination of enclosure 17 a (the recusal) by the panel of two was unlawful and unconstitutional and hence had no legal effect.

augustine paul On Tuesday, the apex court struck out Raja Petra's application to recuse Paul from being part of the three-member panel to hear the habeas corpus appeal.

Paul had removed himself from hearing the recusal application but returned to the bench after Nik Hashim and Zulkefli dismissed the application.

Lawyer Malik Imtiaz Sarwar, for Raja Petra, had prior to that argued that there were two grounds for the application:

  • Raja Petra had commented in some articles on the Internet about Paul as the High Court judge in Anwar Ibrahim's corruption trial in 1998; and

  • Paul, as the High Court judge had dismissed Raja Petra's habeas corpus application in 2001, but the Federal Court later released him.

Monday's hearing likely postponed

Following today's application, there is a likelihood that the scheduled habeas corpus appeal this coming Monday will be postponed to another date. Besides the Home Minister's appeal, Raja Petra is also cross appealing

On Nov 7, Shah Alam High Court judge Justice Syed Ahmad Helmy Syed Ahmad in ordering Raja Petra's release ruled that the Home Minister had not followed proper procedures under Section 8 of the Internal Security Act.

Syed Ahmad said there was procedural non-compliance and the minister had acted beyond his powers in issuing the detention order.

"A minister cannot issue an order out of bad faith," said the High Court judge.

He then ordered that Raja Petra, who had been held at the Kamunting detention camp in Taiping, Perak, for 56 days to be released.