Simon Momoh (right) and his wife Low Kar Hui at the Shah Alam Court complex April 11, 2022. — Picture by Shafwan Zaidon
KUALA LUMPUR, April 11 — Nigerian Simon Adavize Momoh will know on June 2 if he can continue to stay here with his Malaysian wife and two children or leave the country that has been his home for the past nine years.
The High Court in Shah Alam will be deciding on June 2 on whether to quash the Immigration Department’s previous order for Simon to leave Malaysia.
Judicial commissioner Shahnaz Sulaiman set the date after hearing arguments from the lawyers for both Simon and the Malaysian government this morning.
Simon actually had a valid spouse visa that would only expire in October 2022.
But the Immigration Department decided last year on April 9 to cancel his spousal social visit pass. It followed up three days later with a detention and deportation order against Simon.
These events happened even as Simon was already detained by immigration officials for weeks without access to his lawyers.
Background
Simon was first arrested on March 15, 2021 on a drink driving offence. For this, he paid a RM12,000 fine and served a symbolic one-day jail sentence. But instead of being released, he continued to be held for over a month.
Simon was successful in challenging this, with the High Court ruling on April 23 last year that his detention was unlawful and unconstitutional, enabling him to reunite with his wife and children after 40 days apart.
Simon is now challenging the Immigration director-general to have him removed from Malaysia.
In the hearing today of the lawsuit filed on April 20, 2021 to challenge the cancellation of his visa and the deportation order, Simon had named the Immigration director-general and the home minister as the two respondents.
In the judicial review, Simon is seeking several specific court orders, including a certiorari order to quash the respondents’ decision to revoke his social visit pass and to issue the “perintah tahan usir” or order to detain and deport him.
Simon is also seeking a declaration that the respondents did not act appropriately or acted beyond their jurisdiction in deciding to revoke his social visit pass and to issue the detention order (Perintah Tahan Usir), and is also seeking a prohibitory order to prevent the respondents from making any subsequent decision to revoke his social visit pass and to issue the detention order (Perintah Tahan Usir) under the same circumstances.
MORE TO COME
*An earlier version of this story contained an error which has since been corrected.