Kota Kinabalu: The Sessions Court on Wednesday was forced to postpone the trial dubbed as Sabah’s biggest corruption scandal involving RM160 million as the lawyer representing two of the three accused was suddenly admitted to Gleneagles due to “uncontrolled diabetes mellitus”. He had earlier also been to Jesselton Medical Centre.
Judge Abu Bakar Manat adjourned the matter to Nov. 1-3 after informing parties that the court received a recent letter from counsel Marcel Jude dated Oct. 11 attached with a letter from Gleneagles.
“We accept this letter in good faith,” said Abu Bakar. Marcel was representing former Sabah Water Department Director Ag Mohd Tahir Ag Mohd Talib and his wife
“Since no lawyers standing in for Marcel for the first accused Ag Mohd Tahir and second accused Fauziah Piut, the court decided to adjourn,” said the judge.
“In this regard, the court is actually reluctant to postpone this case... this case has taken too long which was registered in December 2016 but now it’s 2022, in two months we will enter the new year again.
Judge Abu Bakar warned all parties that there would be no more postponements for the dates that have been set in the future.
Ag Mohd Tahir, 58, Fauziah, 55, were jointly tried with the former deputy director of the department Lim Lam Beng, 66, the third accused, to 37 counts of money laundering charges, involving cash and bank savings amounting to RM61.57million, as well as unlawful possession of luxury goods.
They had on Dec 29, 2016 pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Earlier, when asked, Ag Mohd Tahir told the court that he managed to see Marcel at the said hospital on Tuesday.
Ag Mohd Tahir said he also conveyed the court’s messages for him to find a lawyer to stand in for him to which Marcel replied “Leave it to him”. There was no indication as to who Marcel was referring to.
Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Mahadi Abdul Jumaat told the court they were ready to proceed on Wednesday with three prosecution witnesses and for tomorrow (Oct 13), when they planned to call the main witness along with 12 other individuals for identification purposes.
“Throughout the four days of this trial process that has been scheduled, excessive costs have been incurred by the court and we hope that at the next trial on Nov 1 - 3, there will be no further delays by any party including ourselves since this case has been running for almost seven years,” said DPP Mahadi.
Together with DPP Mahadi are DPPs Haresh Prakash Somiah and Zander Lim.
Lim was represented by counsel Datuk Tan Hock Chuan, Baldev Singh and Karpaljit Singh.
