PUTRAJAYA: The prosecution has yet to decide whether it intends to pursue its appeal in Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s acquittal in the foreign visa (VLN) system corruption case.
As such, Court of Appeal deputy registrar Khairi Haron allowed the prosecution more time to consider the matter, lawyer Hamidi Nor, a member of Zahid’s legal team, said today.
“The court has fixed another case management on May 12 for the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) to consider the representation,” Hamidi told FMT.
The matter was also confirmed by deputy public prosecutor Malik Ayob.
Malik had made the request for additional time to Khairi during case management this morning.
Zahid, who is deputy prime minister, sent his representations to the AGC in early January calling for the prosecution to discontinue its appeal.
The representations were made after the defence team reviewed the prosecution’s petition of appeal filed on Dec 29.
The petition of appeal lists 15 grounds that the prosecution says warrant overturning the trial judge’s decision to acquit Zahid.
The prosecution says Justice Yazid Mustafa, who presided over the trial in the High Court, misdirected himself by comparing the facts of the case to those of another case.
Prosecutors contend Yazid erred when comparing the facts to those in Rosmah Mansor’s corruption trial, adding that a fact scenario alone does not make Rosmah’s case a binding precedent.
Yazid, they say, was also wrong in his assessment of the credibility of the prosecution’s three key witnesses – former Ultra Kirana Sdn Bhd (UKSB) directors Harry Lee, Wan Quoris Shah Wan Abdul Ghani and David Tan.
They also say the judge failed to take into consideration the testimony of a witness that a ledger presented as evidence in court was a “contemporaneous document”.
On Sept 23 last year, Yazid ruled that the prosecution had failed to establish a prima facie case against Zahid.
Zahid, 70, had been charged with 33 counts of receiving bribes amounting to S$13.56 million (RM42 million) from UKSB between 2014 and 2018 while he was home minister and deputy prime minister when Barisan Nasional was in power.
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.
