.jpg "Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi arrives at the Court of Appeal, Putrajaya on April 5, 2021. — Picture by Shafwan Zaidon")
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PUTRAJAYA, April 5 — Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has exhausted his legal options to consolidate his dozen criminal breach of trust (CBT) charges related to his family’s Yayasan Akalbudi charity into three after the Federal Court dismissed his application today.
The matter today was Zahid’s appeal against the High Court’s dismissal of his application, which was previously rejected at the Court of Appeal.
A three-man bench led by Chief Judge of Malaya Tan Sri Azahar Mohamed said the former deputy prime minister failed to prove his claim that prosecution drew up the charges against him in bad faith.
The bench that included Datuk Seri Mohd Zawawi Salleh and Datuk Seri Hasnah Mohamed Hashim also dismissed as premature Zahid’s assertion that failure to consolidate the charges would lead to unfair sentencing.
“Sentencing is generally a matter subjected to judicial discussion and for the court to consider based on established principles of sentencing, after taking into account all the relevant factors including mitigating factors advanced by the accused person for the court to take into account.
“Based on these grounds, we find there is no merit in this appeal. We dismiss it and we affirm the judgment of the Court of Appeal,” said Azahar when reading out the judgement.
Zahid has no further recourse in this matter as the Federal Court is at the apex of the Malaysian judicial system.
MORE TO COME