High Court rejects Zahid’s bid to postpone grilling by prosecution, says no denial of fair trial

KUALA LUMPUR, July 4 — The High Court today rejected former deputy prime minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s application to postpone the prosecution’s cross-examination of him in his corruption and money laundering trial, concluding that he would not be denied a fair trial if his trial was to proceed at this stage.

Ahmad Zahid had asked for the High Court to stay or pause the prosecution’s cross-examination of him until the Court of Appeal decides on his bid to get the statements that 11 witnesses had given to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), but the High Court disagreed with his application.

In delivering his judgment, High Court judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah gave a list of reasons for his decision, which he said was non-exhaustive.

“After hearing submissions of both parties, this court is of the view that the accused will not be prejudiced during the cross-examination, because he has the liberty to interview the offered witnesses, some of whom are family members and acquaintances.

“The prosecution has also committed to assisting him in this endeavour, therefore there is no denial of a fair trial under Article 5 of the Federal Constitution,” the judge said.

The judge also noted that the principles in the Federal Court’s decision — in a similar case involving former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s application to stay his own criminal trial — would be binding on trials in the High Court as well, before going on to cite one of the paragraphs in the Federal Court decision.

“I do not discern any special circumstances in this application that would warrant a stay of proceedings.

“Following the determinative principles in the Datuk Seri Najib Razak case in the Federal Court which of course binds this court, I find the applicant has failed to meet the required thresholds. On the premises, the application is dismissed, the trial process and the cross-examination of the accused is to continue,” the judge said.

Following the judge’s decision close to 12.30pm after having heard arguments from both the prosecution and defence this morning, Ahmad Zahid’s trial was then set to resume this afternoon with the prosecution’s continued cross-examination of him.

But the court proceedings will not go on this afternoon, as two members of Ahmad Zahid’s legal team having fallen ill and displaying symptoms.

Ahmad Zahid’s lead defence lawyer Hisyam Teh Poh Teik applied for the trial to continue tomorrow instead to enable Covid-19 testing to be done first, as one of the defence lawyers has diarrhoea while another had symptoms of sore throat.

“So under the circumstances, can I suggest we all go back and do our respective tests today to be on the safe side, and come back tomorrow morning 9.30am to inform My Lord as regards the results of the tests because we are in a closed environment,” he said.

Lead prosecutor Datuk Raja Rozela then said: “My Lord, to be on the safe side, I would have to agree with my learned friend.” The judge then said it would be safer to do the tests and to come back tomorrow.

Later when contacted by Malay Mail, Hisyam confirmed that the tests he had mentioned in court was for Covid-19.

Earlier this morning, Ahmad Zahid’s lawyer Hamidi Mohd Noh informed the High Court that one of the defence lawyers was coughing very badly and had a high temperature and that she was present in court earlier, and that he had asked her to leave and undergo testing immediately.

In this trial, Ahmad Zahid – who is currently an Umno president and a former home minister- faces 47 charges, namely 12 counts of criminal breach of trust in relation to charitable foundation Yayasan Akalbudi’s funds, 27 counts of money laundering, and eight counts of bribery charges.

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