PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal (COA) today rejected former Tabung Haji chairman Datuk Seri Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim's application to strike out his corruption and money laundering charges involving road projects in Perak and Kedah.
The three judges ruled that the Baling member of parliament must stand trial over all three corruption charges he faced but dropped four of the ten money laundering charges against him.
The four charges dropped were due to the ambiguity on the charges against Abdul Azeez which did not state the exact location he was alleged to have committed the offences and discrepancies in the evidence against him.
Justice Datuk Seri Kamaludin Md Said, who led a three-member panel which also included Datuk Abu Bakar Jais and Datuk Che Mohd Ruzima Ghazali, unanimously ruled that the Baling member of parliament must face trial for the offences committed.
Abu Bakar, who read out the decision, rejected Abdul Azeez's argument that charges filed against him were done in bad faith.
The judges also ruled that there was no political persecution against the 55-year old as claimed by the Umno politician.
"It is incorrect for the appellant to say the charges against him are defective and baseless.
"His allegation that the charges against him are mala fide (done in bad faith), is baseless. There is no political persecution against the appellant," he said.
The COA ruled that Abdul Azeez must face the charges in court and it would be up to the prosecution to prove the offences and the court to decide at the end of the trial.
Abdul Azeez's lead counsel Amer Hamzah Arshad later told reporters his client accepted the decision and would fight it out at the Sessions Court.
"We will proceed. We have nothing to fear," he said, adding the case mention at the Sessions Court will be on this Friday.
On the letters of representation which he had sent to the Attorney General's Chambers (AGC), Amer said the defence had yet to receive any reply so far.
However, he said this did not mean the AGC had rejected the defence representation.
"It is disheartening we have not received a single reply from the AGC. However, that does not mean the AGC has outrightly rejected our request for the charges to be reviewed and dropped," he said
Abdul Azeez was facing three corruption charges involving RM5.2 million and nine money laundering offences involving RM13.9 million.
The corruption charges faced by Abdul Azeez are in connection with road projects in Perak and Kedah while the money-laundering charges involve money which he allegedly received from a company called Menuju Asas Sdn Bhd.
He was accused of corruptly receiving the money at the CIMB Bank, Jalan Tun Perak in Kuala Lumpur on Dec 8, 2010, and at Affin Bank, Puchong City Centre, Selangor, on June 13, 2017, and April 10, 2018.
On the money laundering charges, Abdul Azeez was accused of committing the offences in the Klang Valley between March 8, 2010, and Aug 30, 2018.
He had sought the COA's intervention to have the charges against him dropped after pleading that he had been accused in bad faith, and that he was a victim of political persecution.