Kuala Lumpur: Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s corruption trial, which is currently at the defence stage in the High Court, has been postponed to allow the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to conduct further investigations.
Deputy public prosecutor (DPP) Abdul Malik Ayob told Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah that the prosecution could only consider Zahid’s representation after the outcome of the MACC probe is known.
Malik, who is assisting DPP Raja Rozela Raja Toran, said the defence sent representations to the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) in January and February.
“It runs into about 200 pages and we need to peruse the document as it involves complex issues,” he said.
Malik said the MACC was also conducting further investigations into the matter.
“After consulting the attorney-general himself, I am instructed not to object to the defence’s application for a postponement. We need reasonable time to consider the representation,” he added.
“We need a reasonable time to consider the representations.”
Sequerah: How long do you need?
Malik: MACC is conducting an investigation. There is a letter from the chief commissioner (Azam Baki) dated Feb 20 to the AG.
Sequerah: Did MACC indicate how long they will take?
Malik: No response yet, but they need time.
Sequerah: Are you depending on their investigations to decide on this matter?
Malik: The Feb 20 letter was sent to the AG. Any decision on the representation must take into account their investigation.
Earlier, defence counsel Hamidi Mohd Noh applied for the trial to be adjourned as no decision has been made on Zahid’s representations.
Sequerah allowed the trial to be adjourned but urged Malik to inform the court should MACC conclude its investigation earlier.
“Please write to us if a decision is made,” he said.
The trial has been tentatively fixed to resume on Aug 1 to 3, 7 to 10 and between 21 and 24.
Further hearing dates have been added in September to December.
On Nov 2, the judge adjourned the case to Jan 16 pending the outcome of Zahid’s appeal to the Court of Appeal in respect of his application to obtain witness’ statements recorded by MACC.
However, Zahid, who is now deputy prime minister, discontinued the appeal.
It was not made known in open court then why the trial scheduled on Jan 16 was postponed.
The defence has called six witnesses so far.
Zahid is accused of 47 counts of money laundering and criminal breach of trust (CBT) involving millions of ringgit from Yayasan Akalbudi and accepting bribes for various projects during his tenure as the home minister between 2013 and 2018.
Twelve of the charges are for CBT, eight for corruption and the remaining 27 for money laundering.
