PUTRAJAYA, Dec 1 — Senior lawyer Datuk Hisyam Teh Poh Teik will be lead counsel for former Tronoh assemblyman Paul Yong Choo Kiong’s appeal against his conviction, 13 years’ jail and two strokes of the cane for raping his maid in 2019.

Sources confirmed to Bernama that Hisyam will be leading the defence team together with lawyers Datuk Rajpal Singh and Salim Bashir in the appeal.

The Court of Appeal has set Jan 30, next year for the hearing of Yong’s appeal.

Yong’s case is also fixed on Tuesday (Dec 5) before the Court of Appeal for the hearing of his application to include additional grounds to his petition of appeal.

On July 27 last year, the High Court in Ipoh found Yong guilty of raping his 23-year-old Indonesian maid in a room of his house in Ipoh, Perak, between 8.15pm and 9.15pm on July 7, 2019.

Yong, 53, was given a stay of execution pending his appeal to the Court of Appeal.

The High Court also allowed Yong to be released on bail of RM30,000 with one surety and ordered him to surrender his passport to the court.

Yong, in his evidence, had denied that he had raped the victim.

In his decision, the High Court judge Datuk Abdul Wahab Mohamed said the court agreed with the prosecution that Yong’s defence that the rape incident did not occur, is not credible, merely a denial and an afterthought. — Bernama