MUSA Aman today filed an appeal against a November High Court ruling dismissing his claim to be the rightful Sabah chief minister instead of rival Mohd Shafie Apdal.

A source close to Musa’s legal team told The Malaysian Insight the lawyers are expecting an early hearing date for the appeal.

“Yes, we have already filed an appeal but we haven’t got the court date yet,” said the source.

On November 7 last year, the Kota Kinabalu High Court set aside former chief minister Musa’s suit to challenge Yang di-Pertua Negeri Juhar Mahiruddin’s appointment of Sabah Chief Minister Mohd Shafie Apdal on May 12.

The court also ordered Musa to pay costs of RM15,000 each to Juhar and Shafie.

Musa had in June to filed for a declaration that he is the rightful Sabah chief minister as appointed by Juhar.

Musa, who was then the Sabah BN chairman, was sworn-in as the chief minister on May 10 by Juhar after Barisan Nssional secured a simple majority in the 14th general election. 

BN lost that majority, however, when several assemblymen from component parties Umno and Upko  jumped ship to give Warisan the edge, resulting in the swearing-in of Shafie on May 12.

Musa filed a writ of summons on May 17 seeking to be declared the lawful Sabah chief minister. 

The court ’s dismissal of the case put an end to the political uncertainty in Sabah following the May 9 general election that left Sabah with a hung assembly. – February 10, 2019.