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THE Federal Court on Friday dismissed an application by former Tronoh assemblyman Paul Yong seeking to review its own earlier decision that affirmed his conviction and sentence for raping his domestic helper, bringing an end to his legal avenues in the case.
A three-judge panel chaired by Chief Judge of Malaya Justice Hashim Hamzah ruled that Yong had failed to satisfy the exceptional requirements under Rule 137 of the Rules of the Federal Court 1995, which allows a review only in the narrowest of circumstances.
“We are of the view that parties have been given full opportunity. There is no breach of natural justice.
“We therefore dismiss the application,” Justice Hashim said in court on Friday, February 6.
The other members of the bench were Federal Court judges Justices Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali and Collin Lawrence Sequerah.
Yong, 55, showed no visible reaction as the decision was delivered. He appeared before the court handcuffed, wearing an orange prison jumpsuit and sporting a crew cut, with several family members seated in the public gallery.
The review application sought to set aside a Federal Court ruling delivered by a different panel in October last year, which had dismissed Yong’s final appeal and upheld his conviction and sentence. He has been serving his prison term at Kajang Prison since October 1, 2025.
Earlier, Yong’s counsel, Datuk Hisyam Teh Poh Teik, argued that the former politician had suffered a grave miscarriage of justice and should be granted leave to pursue a review. He contended that Yong’s right to be heard had been inadvertently denied by the earlier panel.
Hisyam submitted that a breach of natural justice occurred when the trial judge failed to consider Yong’s Section 112 statement, which he gave to police during the investigation, as part of the evidence.
The prosecution, however, opposed the application, arguing that it amounted to an attempt to relitigate matters already conclusively decided by multiple courts.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Datuk Yusaini Amer Abdul Karim told the court that Yong’s case was not suitable for the exercise of the Federal Court’s inherent powers to review its own judgment.
He said the issues raised had already been fully canvassed and formed the basis of Yong’s appeals at both the Court of Appeal and the Federal Court.
“It is unreasonable for questions of fact and law to be relitigated at this stage. If such were the case, there would be no end to a proceeding, and it would defeat the principle of finality in a case,” DPP Yusaini said.
Yong was first convicted in July 2022, when the Ipoh High Court sentenced him to 13 years’ imprisonment and two strokes of the rotan for raping his 23-year-old domestic helper. The offence was found to have taken place in a room at his house in Ipoh between 8.15pm and 9.15pm on July 7, 2019.
In March 2024, the Court of Appeal reduced his jail term to eight years while maintaining the corporal punishment. That decision was later upheld by the Federal Court, which dismissed Yong’s final appeal on October 1 last year.
In its ruling, the apex court said it was satisfied that the victim was a credible and convincing witness and affirmed that the High Court had been correct in accepting her testimony as the foundation of the conviction. - February 6, 2026