Court of Appeal dismisses Ng’s appeal against one-day jail sentence, RM30,000 fine for contempt of court

0

Ng talking to his clients at the courthouse.

KUCHING: The Court of Appeal today dismissed an appeal by a politician cum lawyer Dominique Ng against a one-day jail sentence meted out by the High Court here for contempt of court in 2017.

Apart from maintaining the jail term, the Court of Appeal also maintained the RM30,000 fine in default of three months’ of imprisonment imposed by the High Court on Ng.

The decision was made by a panel of Court of Appeal judges namely Datuk Abdul Rahman Sebli, Datuk Kamardin Hashim and Datuk Mohamad Zabidin Mohd Diah.

The offence was committed by Ng when he was engaged as lawyer for the villagers from Kampung Haji Wahid in Canada Hill, Miri in a land dispute case in 2017.

The villagers were claiming NCR on the land in which a provisional lease was issued to Samling’s subsidiary company, Pantai Bayu Indah Sdn Bhd.

On March 6, 2017, Ng’s clients wanted him to apply to the court to get High Court Judge Datuk Lee Heng Cheong to withdraw from presiding over the case.

The application was however rejected.

Ng had described Lee as being unfair as a judge for having personal interest in the land case in a video that had gone viral.

In the video footage, Ng was seen briefing his clients outside the courtroom.

Ng was found guilty of the charge of contempt of court on March 30, 2017 by another High Court Judge Dean Wayne Daly.

Ng, a former Padungan assemblyman, is also the president of the civil society, Sarawak Association for People’s Aspirations (Sapa).