Senior federal counsel Muhammad Sinthi who acted for the home ministry, told the High Court today that the police had obtained an additional 38 days’ remand for businessman Goh Leong Yeong under Poca.

The counsel said he was using this fresh order to raise a preliminary objection against Goh’s habeas corpus application to challenge the first detention.

“Thus, his application to challenge the 21 days’ detention is now rendered academic. We are raising this as our preliminary objection,” he said.

Goh was arrested on Oct 27 in Pahang and detained under Poca. It was reported that Goh fled from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) building in Putrajaya after he was released on Oct 11, after hearing that police were waiting to rearrest him.

Goh’s lawyer Gopal Sri Ram said that his client maintained the detention was invalid, claiming any order made under Section 4(1)(a) of Poca is deemed null.

However, High Court judicial commissioner Azhar Abdul Hamid allowed the preliminary objection by the government and dismissed Goh’s habeas corpus bid.

Goh was not present in court for the hearing today.

He sought to challenge his 21 days’ detention for an illegal gambling probe, on grounds that the detention was invalid.

Goh said that Section 4(1)(a) violated Article 121 of the Federal Constitution as Parliament had removed any discretion given to the magistrate when suspects were produced for remand.

He further said his detention was also outside the scope of Poca and the preventive detention law was not applicable to him.