Kuala Lumpur: The sessions court here has granted Kinabatangan MP Bung Moktar Radin and his wife Zizie Izette Abdul Samad a stay of their corruption trial which was scheduled to resume today.
Judge Rosli Ahmad made the ruling after the prosecution said it had no objections to deferring the trial pending the disposal of an application by the accused for the Court of Appeal to review its decision calling for their defence in the case.
Deputy public prosecutor Fadly Zambry told Rosli that the review application was fixed for case management in the Court of Appeal on April 11.
The court has now rescheduled the trial to run from Aug 18 to 20, Sept 2 to 4, and Sept 24 to 26.
Lawyer M Athimulan represented Bung while K Devkumar represented Zizie.
The prosecution and the defence returned to the trial court in December last year after the Court of Appeal on Nov 18 reversed Bung and Zizie’s acquittal by the High Court.
Justice Zaini Mazlan, who read the appellate court’s broad grounds of decision, said the revision application filed by the couple in the High Court was akin to an appeal.
Bung, then the non-executive chairman of Felcra, was charged with two counts of receiving bribes of RM2.2 million and RM262,500 as an inducement to obtain Felcra’s approval to invest RM150 million in Public Mutual unit trusts.
He is alleged to have accepted the bribes from Public Mutual investment agent Norhaili Madhi through Zizie at the Taman Melawati Public Bank branch between 12.30pm and 5pm on June 12, 2015.
He was also charged with receiving a bribe of RM337,500 from Norhaili under Zizie’s name at the same location on June 19, 2015.
Zizie faces three charges of abetting Bung in the commission of the alleged offences.
On Sept 2, 2022, the sessions court ordered the couple to enter their defence as the prosecution had established a prima facie case against them.
On Sept 7 last year, the High Court, exercising its revisionary powers under Section 323 of the Criminal Procedure Code, acquitted the duo. However, that decision was set aside on appeal.
