PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal has reserved its judgment on Datuk Peter Anthony's appeal against his conviction and sentence of three years' jail and RM50,000 fine for corruption.
A three-member panel led by Datuk Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim reserved judgment after hearing lengthy submissions from both parties today.
The court has set Aug 16 for next case management to set a date to deliver its decision.
Other members of the bench were Mohamed Zaini Mazlan and Datuk Azmi Ariffin.
Earlier, lawyer Datuk Nicholas Kow Eng Chuan who appeared for the former Sabah infrastructure development minister argued that the charges against his client were defective as there were no signatures on the charge sheets.
He said that under Section 172 of the Criminal Procedure Code, all charges tried before the High Court shall be brought in the name of the public prosecutor and signed.
"It is by law that the charge sheet is required to be signed. The learned deputy public prosecutor said this provision does not apply because the charges were not brought to the High Court but to the Sessions Court instead.
"However, we argued that the law must be equal; this provision must be applied at the lower court as well," he said in his submissions.
Meanwhile, deputy public prosecutor Datuk Wan Shaharuddin Wan Ladin said the absence of a signature on the charge sheet had not led to a miscarriage of justice.
He said the charges presented, whether original or amended, have been read and explained to the appellant (Peter).
"The appellant also understands the charges read to him.
"The absence of a signature on the charge sheet is merely an omission that cannot be considered a miscarriage of justice, a term typically used when someone is deprived of the right to a fair trial," he said.
Peter filed the appeal on April 19, last year, after the High Court upheld his conviction and sentence for forging a document to secure a project for his company in 2014.
The document was in regards to a purported collaboration with Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) to fund and set up a mechanical and engineering technical training centre via direct negotiation in July 2014.
High Court judge Datuk Ahmad Bache ruled that the Sessions Court judge did not err when sentencing Peter after finding him guilty of using a forged letter from the UMS deputy vice-chancellor's office with the intention to deceive the prime minister's principal private secretary.
Ahmad had said the defence led by lawyer S. Devanandan had failed to cast reasonable doubt on the prosecution's case.
He agreed with the trial judge that the accused's statements were all afterthoughts as he failed to reveal everything during investigation by Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).
The court also dismissed Peter's application to reduce his sentence.
Peter was accused of committing the offence at the Perdana Putra Building in Putrajaya between June 13 and Aug 21, 2014.
The former Parti Warisan Sabah vice-president was also charged with an alternative count of using a false document as genuine, namely a letter from the office of the deputy vice-chancellor of UMS dated June 9, 2014, which had a false statement in the title of the letter, and he had reason to believe that the document is false, at the same place and time.
The charges were framed under Section 468 of the Penal Code which carries a maximum seven-year imprisonment and a fine upon conviction.