Court of Appeal postpones Zahid's graft appeal hearing
Published on: Monday, March 18, 2024
By:
FMT, V Anbalagan
On Sept 23, 2022, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi was acquitted of all 40 charges brought in connection with his foreign visa system corruption case. (Bernama pic)
PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal today postponed the prosecution’s appeal from Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s acquittal in his foreign visa system (VLN) corruption case to Sept 9.
Justice Hadhariah Syed Ismail, who chaired a three-member bench, however said this would be the final adjournment of the hearing.
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The adjournment was granted at the request of the deputy prime minister’s lawyers.
Hadhariah expressed her unhappiness over having do so, saying she had spent several days reading the High Court’s notes of proceedings in preparation for the hearing.
“It ran into more than 1,000 pages. I did not focus on other cases. Since the prosecution has no objection to the adjournment, I do not want to say anything more,” she said.
Hadhariah said the bench had agreed to grant a longer adjournment to enable the prosecution to deal with representations made to the Attorney-General’s Chambers on Zahid’s behalf.
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Also on the panel were Justices Azman Abdullah and SM Komathy Suppiah.
Zahid’s lead counsel Hisyam Teh Poh Teik had applied for the postponement this morning, saying a second set of representations were lodged with the AGC on Feb 7.
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“It must be given fair and just consideration,” he said.
A previous set of representation was sent in January last year.
Hisyam also said his client, who was present in court, was required to attend a meeting at the rural and regional development ministry at noon.
Another of Zahid’s lawyers, Hamidi Noh, told the bench that Zahid’s legal team only received the prosecution’s written submissions on Thursday.
“The submissions touch on many issues not raised during the trial in the High Court. We need more time to review the issues and reply,” he added.
Deputy public prosecutor (DPP) Dusuki Mokhtar said he had no objections to the application for postponement.
“We too need time to study the representations,” said Dusuki, who was assisted by DPPs Abdul Malik Ayob and Zander Lim.
Lawyers Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim and Aiman Abdul Rahman also appeared for Zahid.
Zahid was charged with 33 counts of receiving bribes amounting to S$13.56 million (RM42 million) from Ultra Kirana Sdn Bhd (UKSB) between 2014 and 2018 while he was home minister and deputy prime minister under the previous Barisan Nasional (BN) administration.
He was also charged with seven other counts of obtaining for himself the sums of S$1.15 million, RM3 million, 15,000 Swiss francs and US$15,000 from the same company in connection with his official duties.
On Sept 23, 2022, Justice Yazid Mustafa, then a High Court judge, acquitted Zahid of all 40 charges after ruling that the prosecution had failed to establish a prima facie case against him.
The Court of Appeal previously granted the prosecution five adjournments to allow the attorney-general to decide whether or not to proceed with the appeal.
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