Abetting in RM15m land deal: Peter claims trial
Published on: Friday, June 19, 2020
By: Cynthia D Baga
Peter greets supporters at the court compound.
Kota Kinabalu: State Infrastructure Development Minister Datuk Peter Anthony claimed trial, Thursday, to abetting a lawyer in committing Criminal Breach of Trust over the sale of land to the Rubber Industry Smallholders Development Authority (Risda).Peter, 49, made the plea before Sessions Court Judge Abu Bakar Manar.
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He is accused of abetting Persius Henry Bolutong @ Michael Persius Ubu, 64, who was agent to Risda which entrusted him with a sum of RM15,545,400 paid through a cheque later banked-in into an account belonging to Michael’s law firm bank account and the money was for 10 per cent payment from the sale price of the 6,768,688 acres of palm oil farm in Sungah Pinangah and Sungai Labau in Tongod.
The charge stated that Michael had dishonestly released the property in which he violated the contract with Risda as a result of the abetting between Michael and Peter.
The alleged incident happened between July 22, 2014 and Nov. 19, 2015 at Michael’s law firm in Beverly Hills, Penampang.
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Peter was charged under Section 109 of the Penal Code and read together under Section 409 of the same Code, which carries a jail term between two and 20 years, with whipping and also liable to fine, on conviction.
The court allowed for the previous bail conditions to be adopted and the sum of bail is the same as the previous amount since there are possibilities for Peter's cases to be consolidated and a joint trial.
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Peter’s previous bail was RM500,000 with two local sureties and his passport to be impounded by the court as well to report to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) office once in every two months.
The court also set Aug. 4 this year for pre-trial case management to serve documents.
On Monday, Michael was charged and claimed trial to three counts of committing breach of trust and involving in money-laundering pertaining to the sale of the said land to Risda.
Earlier, in Peter’s case proceedings, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Mohd Fadhly Mohamad Zambry who was assisted by DPP Nartiah M. Sambatan, MACC Prosecuting Officers Amin Fakri and Mohd Faliq Basiruddin, raised two issues.
The first was the application of a joint trial for all Peter’s cases and Michael’s cases.
Fadhly said the court had fixed Aug 4 for case management of Peter’s previous cases as well as Michael’s case and that he requested for all the cases to be mentioned on the same day.
On the second issue, regarding Peter’s bail, Fadhly said the prosecution had no objection if the counsel wished to adopt the similar bail amount of RM500,000 and conditions as Peter’s previous cases.
In reply, counsel Dominic Chew who together with counsel Martin Tommy, Luke Ressa Balang and Datuk Douglas Lind, representing Peter, applied to adopt the bail conditions as proposed previously.
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