Charity foundation graft trial involving Malaysia DPM Ahmad Zahid postponed; new evidence cited

KUALA LUMPUR: The trial involving Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi in a charity foundation graft case has been postponed to August. 

This comes after Ahmad Zahid sent a representation letter to the Attorney General's Chambers (AGC) to strike out his graft charges in relation to the misappropriation of charitable foundation Yayasan Akalbudi’s funds, according to The Star. 

Lawyer Hamidi Mohd Noh told this to the High Court on Monday (Apr 10), citing "new facts and evidence" in the case.

Malay Mail reported that the prosecution would need more time to study the documents that contained more than 200 pages while also waiting for the outcome of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) plans to further investigate Ahmad Zahid’s case.

According to deputy public prosecutor Abdul Malik Ayob, the instructions given to the prosecution were to not object to Ahmad Zahid’s request to strike out the trial since they needed time to study the representation letter.

“After consulting with the public prosecutor, I was instructed to not object to this application today,” Mr Abdul Malik was quoted as saying by Malay Mail. 

Asked if the MACC mentioned how long it would take to probe Ahmad Zahid’s case, Mr Abdul Malik said: “Not yet, we have enquired but so far we have not received any response yet as to what investigations they are conducting further, or the time they are taking, but we believe we need the results of this further investigation for us to make a decision on this representation.”

The Star reported that the court allowed the postponement and fixed Aug 1 for parties to inform the court of the outcome of the representation.

Ahmad Zahid is currently facing 47 charges - 12 for criminal breach of trust (CBT), eight for corruption and 27 for money laundering - involving tens of millions of ringgit belonging to Yayasan Akalbudi (YAB).

YAB is a charity foundation. The United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) president is the foundation’s trustee and sole signatory for cheques. 

Separately, in an earlier corruption case involving the foreign visa (VLN) system, the High Court had acquitted and discharged Ahmad Zahid of all 40 graft charges on Sep 23 last year after ruling that the prosecution had not made out a prima facie case against him, according to Malaysian media. 

However, the prosecution appealed against the High Court’s decision on Sep 26 last year for its decision to acquit Ahmad Zahid. The Court of Appeal has fixed the appeal for case management several times, the latest being May 12. 

Ahmad Zahid was accused of receiving bribes totalling RM42 million from Ultra Kirana Sdn Bhd as an inducement to extend the company's contract as the operator of the one-stop centre service in China and the VLN for the home ministry. 

Ahmad Zahid was the home minister from May 2013 to May 2018. 

He was also charged with receiving S$1.15 million, RM3 million, CHF15,000 and US$15,000 in cash from the same company. The cash amounted to about US$1.5 million.

On Dec 2 last year, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim appointed Ahmad Zahid as his deputy and as Minister of Rural and Regional Development.