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PUTRAJAYA: Lead attorney Mohamed Haniff Khatri Abdulla was fined RM30,000 today after he was found guilty of undermining a 2017 Federal Court ruling in a civil case involving the purchase of property.
Three partners of a money lending company, Ding Toh Biew, Ding Toh Gien and Ding Toh Lei, were also fined RM50,000 each for a similar offense of showing disrespect for the higher court ruling.
They had charged the Federal Court with partiality, following an order from the High Court to return two plots of land in Perak and remove impediments to ownership.
A three-member Federal Court bench chaired by Abdul Rahman Sebli said the judiciary would not take anyone in contempt of court and judges lightly.
“The sentence must reflect the seriousness of the crime and contempt of court is one of them,” he said.
Rahman, who sat down with Zaharah Mohd Yusof and Hasnah Mohammed Hashim, said the court imposed a fine of RM50,000 or a month in jail as the trio did not express regret or show remorse in court after they were found guilty.
Instead, they were persistent in acting on Haniff’s advice. This is not a mitigation but an excuse, ”he said.
Rahman said Haniff had unequivocally and unconditionally apologized to the court.
“However, we take into account that the crime was committed by a senior member of the Bar Association and an official of the court against the Federal Court,” he said.
The court also ordered the trio to pay an additional RM50,000 and Haniff RM10,000 in costs to the plaintiffs, Ling Peek Hoe and Ling Boon Huat.
The bank also allowed the four to settle their fines on Friday.
In 2012, the Ipoh High Court upheld Peek Hoe and Boon Huat’s claim that Sitiawan-based Golden Star loan company and the three partners return two pieces of land and remove other impediments to the property within 60 days from sentencing.
The defendants successfully appealed to the Court of Appeal, but in 2017, the Federal Court overturned the decision and reinstated the High Court ruling.
Dissatisfied, Golden Star and the three partners requested a review of the Federal Court ruling, and Haniff was appointed to represent them.
Haniff and the trio are said to have accused the federal court of bias and requested a request for review for the stay of the Federal Court ruling in a Superior Court.
The request for suspension should have been filed with the Federal Court.
Following this, Peek Hoe and Boon Huat, who were represented by attorneys Edmund Lim and Hong Chang, entered contempt proceedings against Haniff, Golden Star and the three partners.
Previously, Hasnah, reading the court’s unanimous guilty verdict against the four, said that contempt of court had been proven beyond a reasonable doubt for willful disobedience of the Federal Court.
“Therefore, we are of the opinion that such behavior by respondents was stubborn and disrespectful,” he said.
Hasnah, the contempt action was filed because the defendants interfered with the administration of justice and defamed the images of Federal Court judges.
“An accusation of bias is very serious and will erode public confidence in the judiciary,” he said.
He said Haniff, who was represented by Mohamed Reza Abu Hassan, was obliged to follow a court order and that anyone who disobeyed it ran the risk of contempt.
She said Haniff had been in practice for more than 20 years and was “not a rookie.”
“As a lawyer and a court official, you must protect the dignity of the court. Instead, he brought disrepute by blatantly defying the trial, “he said.
LK Chieng’s attorneys turned up after all Biew, Toh Gien, and Toh Lei.
