Senior Government Officials Cited For Contempt Of Court.

Two high-ranking immigration officers and a deputy public prosecutor may face the prospect of being jailed for contempt of court for allegedly misleading the court which resulted in a fugitive former Cambodian police chief being prematurely deported to his country from where he fled.

The Federal Court's three-man bench comprising Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Datuk Richard Malanjum and Federal Court judges Datuk Hashim Yusoff and Datuk Azmel Ma'amor unanimously allowed Heng Peo's ex-parte application for leave to file contempt proceedings against the trio.

The judges said there was a prima facie case for leave to be granted to Heng Peo to file contempt proceedings and ordered his counsel N. Sivanathan to file the application to cite the officers for contempt of court within 21 days. Following this decision, the trio has to answer to the court why they should not be cited for contempt of court.

Heng Peo, 52, sought leave to commit to prison Immigration director-general Datuk Wahid Mohd Don, Immigration director of Enforcement Datuk Ishak Mohamed and deputy head of Prosecution (Operations) Mohamad Hanafiah Zakaria for allegedly committing several acts of contempt of court, including allegedly orchestrating his premature deportation to Cambodia.

Heng Peo fled from Cambodia after a court convicted him in absentia on Sept 18 last year for conspiring in the murder of a municipal court judge, Sok Setha Mony.
On Dec 21 last year, Heng Peo, was deported back to Cambodia when his lawyers were in the process of making preparations to file an appeal to the Federal Court against the Court of Appeal's decision which set aside the deportation order for him to be sent to Singapore.

On that day, the Court of Appeal had allowed an appeal by the director-general of Immigration to set aside a High Court decision which ruled in favour of Heng Peo and ordered that he be sent to Singapore, his last point of disembarkation.

In his application, Heng Peo claimed that Wahid, Ishak and Mohamad Hanafiah had committed contempt of court by acting individually and/or jointly to interfere with the administration of justice by deliberately suppressing facts. He claimed that they had orchestrated his premature deportation to Cambodia and undermined his application for a stay order of the deportation which was pending in the Federal Court on Dec 21 last year.

Heng Peo claimed that three officers had individually or jointly misled the Court of Appeal by way of a sworn affidavit and oral statements by stating that the director-general of Immigration had not decided as to how and when Heng Peo would be deported whilst being fully aware that arrangements had been made with the Cambodian government to have a private plane waiting at the Subang Airport to remove Heng Peo from Malaysia. (Bernama)

****** This constitutes the very serious act of contempt of court which should never be taken lightly lest the dispensation of justice is jeopardized. No one is above the law of contempt and wrongdoers should be severely punished in order to maintain the dignity and powers of the court.

Having said that, in the context of the three government officials I would think that they were merely following orders of their political bosses. There is no reason for them to have acted in the way they did without tacit instructions from the top leadership. The government has every right to act in the interest of the country and in its relationship with other nations. But blatantly attempting to circumvent the courts is not the proper way to do so. However I'm sure the court will take into consideration the circumstances which led them to their present predicament and view their case with the sympathy they badly need at the moment.
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