IPOH – The high court here today has postponed the rape trial involving Tronoh assemblyman Paul Yong after three main witnesses tested positive for Covid-19.
Judge Datuk Abdul Wahab Mohamed fixed eight days from June 23 to 25 and July 12 to 16 as the next trial dates, following a request by the prosecution for a postponement after three of its witnesses in charge of CCTV recordings are now under quarantine.
“Without these three testifying, the other witnesses cannot take the stand to view the recordings,” said the prosecution.
The court also fixed May 28 for the defence reply and decision on the prosecution’s application for two witnesses to testify under the Witness Protection Act 2009.
Prosecution witness Thong Wan Cheng – a secretary at a Bercham-based maid agency – said on the morning of July 8, 2019, the agency’s telephone operator answered a call from Indonesian Embassy Manpower Unit employee Riki Sapari, who claimed that the victim had contacted him, alleging that she had been raped by her employer.
“I then contacted Riki through WhatsApp after he failed to answer my call, and he asked me to lodge a report and to go rescue the victim.”
However, according to Thong, when the agency’s employees went over to Yong’s house at 1.30pm, they were told that the 24-year-old victim was no longer in the premises and that the house keys were also missing.
Yong, 51, was charged with raping the maid at his house at Meru Desa Park between 8.15pm and 9.15pm on July 7, 2019.
He was first charged on August 23, 2019. – Bernama, April 8, 2021
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