13 July 2007, New Straits Times KUALA LUMPUR: Former Globe Silk Store owner, Tan Sri Kishu Tirathrai, 66, his wife and two sons were sentenced to three months’ jail each yesterday for contempt of court. HSBC Bank Malaysia Berhad, which obtained an order for sale from the High Court on March 30 2003 to sell the Globe Silk Store building, initiated contempt proceedings against the company and its four directors when they failed to abide the court orders by placing four caveats, one attempting injunction and two ex-parte restraining orders on the property. Mr. Benjamin Dawson and Ms. Koh San Tee appeared for the Bank. The High Court Judge Datuk Mohd Hishamuddin Mohd Yunus in passing the sentence said that the court always viewed with seriousness any act that defied its orders. He said the case had an aggravating element which lay in the manner in which the disobedience was done. “By engaging lawyers and invoking the legal process, the acts have an outward appearance of professionalism, sophistication and legality” said the Judge, “Such a modus operandi often makes the victim helpless, unless the victim is a person of means, in this case a bank, and able to employ an able prosecutor.”
