PUTRAJAYA, June 15 — The Court of Appeal, here, today dismissed housewife Yim Pek Ha’s review application to set aside her 12 years’ jail sentence for inflicting injuries on Indonesian maid Nirmala Bonat.

A three-member panel chaired by Court of Appeal president Tan Sri Md Raus Sharif ruled that Yim had failed to prove her case to warrant the Court of Appeal’s intervention to review its previous decision.

On Oct 1, 2012, the Court of Appeal upheld a High Court’s decision to sentence Yim, 45, to 12 years’ jail after rejecting her appeal against her conviction and jail term.

Justice Raus who presided on the panel with Court of Appeal judges Datuk Balia Yusof Wahi and Datuk Mohd Zawawi Salleh, said Yim’s review application was devoid of merit as the grounds she had relied on to support her review was on matters touching on the facts of the case.

He said it was trite law that the Court of Appeal should be slow to disturb the findings of the lower court.

Justice Raus said a review should not be used to question the findings of the High Court.

“We find that what Yim is asking the court to do is to open and review the evidence which had already been heard,” he said.

Her counsel Hisyam Teh Poh Teik had argued that there was miscarriage of justice warranting the Court of Appeal’s intervention as there were material contraditions in Nirmala’s evidence in the criminal trial and in her civil suit against Yim and her husband.

The panel had heard submissions in the appeal on Dec 4, last year and had set today to deliver its decision.

Yim was charged with four counts of causing grievous hurt to Nirmala at her apartment in Villa Putera, Jalan Tun Ismail, Kuala Lumpur, in January, March and April 2004.

After the trial, she was found guilty and sentenced to 18 years’ jail by the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court on three counts of causing grievous hurt to Nirmala with a hot iron and hot water, but was acquitted on the fourth charge of causing hurt to the maid with a metal cup.

On her appeal to the Kuala Lumpur High Court, her jail term was reduced to 12 years.

The High Court affirmed Yim’s conviction for the first and second charge but acquitted her on the third charge. It also overturned an acquittal by the Sessions Court on the fourth charge of breaking the maid’s nose with a metal cup.

Yim is currently serving her jail sentence at Kajang Prison.

Deputy public prosecutor Norinna Bahadun appeared for the prosecution. — Bernama