PETALING JAYA: Deputy prime minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has applied to the Kuala Lumpur High Court to permanently return his passport so he can carry out his official duties.
The High Court is withholding Zahid’s passport as part of his conditional bail pending the outcome of his corruption trial.
Zahid is accused of 47 counts of money laundering and criminal breach of trust involving millions of ringgit from Yayasan Akalbudi and accepting bribes for various projects during his tenure as the home minister in the previous Barisan Nasional administration.
According to Bernama, Zahid said in an affidavit he needed his passport to effectively carry out his duties, which included official trips overseas.
“As deputy prime minister, I have a mandate from Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim to represent him for official matters (overseas),” he said.
He said he had no intention of running away and vowed to attend trial on the dates set by the court.
In his affidavit, Zahid, who is also the rural and regional development minister, said he faced restrictions in carrying out his duties as he did not have access to his passport.
He also said he needed his passport to apply for a diplomatic passport from the immigration department for his official duties.
With the return of the passport, he said, he would no longer need to apply for a temporary release of his passport through the courts.
As such, he was applying to set aside the order to surrender his passport as part of the conditions for his bail.
