Nov 17 case management for appeal against Zahid’s visa system graft acquittal
Published on: Monday, September 18, 2023
By: FMT
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Prosecutors in deputy prime minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s corruption case tell the court that they need more time to examine Zahid’s representation.
PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal today fixed Nov 17 for further case management in the prosecution’s appeal against deputy prime minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s acquittal in his foreign visa system (VLN) corruption case.
Prosecutors told the court that they needed more time to examine Zahid’s representation to drop the appeal.
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On Sept 29, 2022, Shah Alam High Court acquitted Zahid of all 40 charges of receiving bribes from Ultra Kirana Sdn Bhd (UKSB) to extend the company’s contract to manage the VLN.
The court held that the prosecution had failed to prove the charges against Zahid.
On Dec 29, the prosecution appealed the decision, citing 15 grounds for its challenge.
Key to its appeal, the prosecution said Justice Yazid Mustafa, who presided over the trial in the High Court, had misdirected himself by comparing the facts of the case to those of another.
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It also contended that 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.
The prosecution said Yazid was also wrong in his assessment of the credibility of the prosecution’s three key witnesses – former UKSB directors Harry Lee, Wan Quoris Shah Wan Abdul Ghani and David Tan.
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It said the judge failed to take into consideration a witness’s testimony that a ledger presented as evidence in court was a “contemporaneous document”.
The prosecution team further contended that Yazid erred when deciding that the source of the money used by UKSB to pay Zahid needed to be explained and proven, saying that the law contained no such stipulation.
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 under the previous Barisan Nasional (BN) administration.
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.
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