PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal today set Nov 18 to deliver its decision on the prosecution's appeal against the Kuala Lumpur High Court's decision to acquit and discharge Kinabatangan member of parliament Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin and his wife Datin Seri Zizie Izette Abd Samad of RM2.8 million corruption charges.
A three-member panel led by Datuk Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim, who sat with Datuk Mohamed Zaini Mazlan and High Court judge Datuk Noorin Badaruddin, set the date after going through the prosecution's (appellant) written submissions and hearing oral submissions from the couple's lawyers.
"The court feels the written submissions are sufficient for us to analyse and make our decision on today's appeal.
"There is no need to prolong (this case). We will consider your submissions and Nov 18 is fixed for decision," he said.
Earlier, Zaidi had ordered the case, which he said was public interest, to go on although deputy public prosecutor Law Chin How, who is in charge, had called in sick and co-DPP Maziah Mohaide had tendered his medical certificate to the court.
Zaidi said the panel would rely on the appellant's written submissions in the proceedings today.
At the onset of the proceedings, Maziah said she had wanted to seek a postponement but was told that the panel did not allow it.
"If the court wishes to proceed to hear the appeal, the appellant will use the full written submission dated June 20 this year.
"If there is a need for clarification, I apologise as I cannot do so because this case is handled by Law who cannot be here today," she said.
In their submissions, lawyers M. Athimulan and Datuk Seri K.Kumaraendran, who acted for Bung Moktar and Zizie Izette respectively, said the Sessions Court judge in its decision to call the couple to enter defence in 2022 had acted with material injustice, against the provision of law and caused miscarriage of justice in that no prima facie case was established by the prosecution.
Athimulan said all evidence did not support the basic fact that Bung Moktar had received the RM2.8 million funds and this was confirmed by two prosecution witnesses that the latter had not solicited or received the monies.
Kumaraendran questioned the rationale behind requiring Bung Moktar to enter a defence when there was no evidence of him receiving the money.
"What is the basis of it? Two prosecution witnesses had proven that the money was never given to Bung Moktar but through Zizie Izette as an introductory fee," he said.
The Attorney-General's Chambers, in its appeal, outlined seven key arguments challenging Azhar's decision, saying the judge had committed errors in exercising the power of review to clear the couple after the trial Sessions Court judge had ruled a prima facie case.
In September last year, Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Datuk Azhar Abdul Hamid acquitted and discharged the couple after ruling that the Sessions Court erred in ordering the couple to enter their defence on Sept 2 the previous year.
He had said the court found that there was no evidence that two witnesses — Norhaili Ahmad Mokhtar and Madhi Abdul Hamid — had given money to Bung Moktar through his wife.
On May 3, 2019, Bung Moktar was charged with two charges of accepting bribes of RM2.2 million and RM262,500 as an inducement to obtain Felcra approval to invest RM150 million in Public Mutual unit trusts.
He was alleged to have accepted bribes from Madhi, a Public Mutual Bhd's investment agent, through Zizie Izette at Public Bank's Taman Melawati Branch here between 12.30pm and 5pm on June 12, 2015.