Batu parliamentarian Tian Chua was today instructed by the Appellate Court to put in his petition of appeal against a lower court's conviction against him over his “cop-biting” charge.

“We have been given two weeks to do so. After that the court will fix a date for the trial. So it will be in two weeks' time,” Chua told Malaysiakini when contacted.

He said he and his lawyer, Amer Hamzah Arshad, would prepare the appeal for submission on March 17.

“We will have to put in the petition of appeal after our leave of appeal was granted in August of last year,” said Amer Hamzah.

NONEThe lawyer further explained that while leave was already granted for the appeal, it was delayed because the record of appeal had not been received.

However the court decided to allow the petition of appeal to continue.

“The registrar will now have to check and see if the record of appeal has been received,” said Amer Hamzah further.

The PKR vice-president was fined RM3,000 and jailed six months by the KL magistrate's court on Oct 22 for biting a police constable and preventing the latter from discharging his duty.

The sentence will disqualify Chua from holding the MP's post, pending his appeal.

Chua, 46, whose full name is Chua Tian Chang, was charged with hurting constable Rosyaidi Anuar, 21, in front of Parliament House at 10.45am on Dec 11, 2007.

Rosyaidi is attached to the Narcotics Division of the Kuala Lumpur police contingent headquarters.

The incident took place during an assembly organised by the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih) outside Parliament to protest against a bill extending the retirement age of Election Commission members from 65 to 66.