Justice Abdul Wahab Mohamed said there were issues regarding the relevance and credibility of the new evidence, a written statement by Yong’s former maid, Berita Harian reported.
He said the court had observed inconsistencies between the maid’s statement and her initial testimony.
The court also found the defence’s claim that the maid could not attend court due to financial constraints and travel difficulties unconvincing.
“If no genuine effort was made to bring the victim to testify in Malaysia, citing reasons such as fear of arrest, such an excuse is unacceptable, and no conclusions can be drawn,” Wahab was quoted as saying.
“Therefore, the court finds the additional evidence to be hearsay and, at the same time, not aligned with Section 32(1) of the Evidence Act 1950.
“In this situation, the court upholds the previous decision that no reasonable doubt was raised by the defence, and therefore, the conviction should be maintained.”
It was previously reported that the Indonesian maid who accused Yong of rape in 2019 had admitted that her accusations were fabricated in an attempt to return home before the end of her contract.
The maid’s lawyer, Pathurrahman SH, read her statement in the Ipoh High Court.
Yong was represented by Rajpal Singh and Salim Bashir, while the prosecution was led by Perak prosecution director Zaki Abdul Kudos, alongside deputy public prosecutors Nasrul Hadi Abdul Ghani and Qurratu’aini Khalifah.
On July 27, 2022, the Ipoh High Court found Yong guilty of raping his 23-year-old Indonesian maid in a room at his house in Ipoh, between 8.15pm and 9.15pm, on July 7, 2019.
On March 1, 2024, the Court of Appeal, in a 2-1 majority decision, upheld Yong’s conviction, with Justices Hadhariah Syed Ismail and Azman Abdullah in favour and Justice S Komathy dissenting.
The appeals court, however, reduced Yong’s prison sentence from 13 years to eight, and two strokes of the cane.
Yong appealed the decision to the Federal Court, which allowed him to present additional evidence in his appeal on Nov 12.