THE Court of Appeal today upheld the High Court’s acquittal of Ahmad Zahid Hamidi in his foreign visa (VLN) system corruption case after the prosecution withdrew its appeal.
A three-member bench chaired by Justice Ruzima Ghazali struck out the appeal.
“We are striking out the matter since the public prosecutor has withdrawn the appeal,” he said.
Also on the panel hearing the appeal were Justices Azman Abdullah and Azmi Ariffin.
Zahid was charged with 33 counts of receiving bribes totalling S$13.6 million (RM42 million) from Ultra Kirana Sdn Bhd between 2014 and 2018 while he was home minister and deputy prime minister under the previous Barisan Nasional 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.
On Sept 23, 2022, Justice Yazid Mustafa, then a High Court judge, acquitted Zahid of all 40 charges after ruling that the prosecution had failed to establish a prima facie case against him.
Deputy public prosecutor Yusaini Amer Abdul Karim informed the bench this morning that the attorney-general had decided not to pursue the appeal after considering the trial judge’s grounds of judgment and two representations sent on Zahid’s behalf.
He said the prosecution found no evidence to suggest that Zahid used his position to directly award contracts that were the subject matter of the charges.
“Evidence revealed that the contracts were awarded before the respondent (Zahid) became home minister (under the Barisan Nasional government). There was no room for abuse of power,” he said.
Yusaini also said the extensions of contracts appointing Ultra Kirana as the sole operator of the VLN system had followed all prescribed procedures.
He said the trial judge had also made several important findings of facts.
Yazid found that no probe was conducted by investigators into the money received. He also noted that no investigations were conducted on various individuals who were said to have provided funds sourced from overseas.
Yusaini also pointed to a finding that there was no evidence to support the suggestion that three prosecution witnesses had access to Zahid’s home.
“Further, there was no evidence that money was handed to Zahid due to the conflicting evidence of two prosecution witnesses,” he added.
Yusaini said the public prosecutor was of the opinion that there was strong support for the High Court ruling, adding that the appeal was withdrawn after giving due consideration to the finding of facts made by the trial judge.
Further, Yusaini said due consideration was also given to representations lodged on Zahid’s behalf on Jan 26, 2023 and Feb 7 this year.
Also appearing for the prosecution were deputy public prosecutors Abdul Malik Ayob and Zander Lin, while Zahid was represented by Hisyam Teh Poh Teik, Hamidi Noh, Ahmad Zaidi Zainal and Aiman Abdul Rahman.
Outside court, Zahid thanked his legal team who had worked hard to ensure that the two representations were accepted by the prosecution.
Hisyam said the prosecution’s submissions in seeking to withdraw the appeal were grounded on findings of fact made at trial.
“We are grateful the prosecution accepted the representations and decided to withdraw the appeal as informed to the court today,” he said.
