Sabah Attorney-General Brenndon Keith Soh said sessions court judge Zaini Fishir made the ruling after hearing his submissions and that of Tei’s lawyer, Edward Paul.

Tei, who is at the centre of the alleged Sabah mining scandal, had filed the application under the Rules of Court 2012 to cite Hajiji for contempt, alleging that the state’s immigration powers were used to block his entry and prevent him from attending his corruption trial.

Soh, in opposing the application, argued that ROC 2012 only governed civil proceedings and not criminal matters, he said later in a statement.

Therefore, the application was unsustainable because Tei’s reliance on the ROC 2012 “was misconceived and bad in law”, he said.

He also said that under the Federal Constitution and the Criminal Procedure Code, it was the federal attorney-general who had the “control and direction of all criminal prosecutions and proceedings”.

“Therefore, Tei, as an accused person in the criminal proceedings before another court, is not the proper applicant to commence contempt proceedings in a different court, as that role belongs to the deputy public prosecutor in the criminal proceedings,” he said.

Soh also argued that the application by Tei was made in bad faith and was an abuse of the court’s process.

“The court’s decision was an affirmation that the contempt jurisdiction must not be invoked lightly or used for purposes unrelated to the proper administration of justice,” he added.

Roland Alik also represented Hajiji.