KUALA LUMPUR: Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has sent a representation to the Attorney General's Chambers (AGC) to have his graft charges in the trial involving misappropriation of funds from Yayasan Akalbudi (YAB) dropped, the High Court was told.
His lawyer Hamidi Mohd Noh told this to Court of Appeal judge Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah, who is presiding at the High Court, citing "new facts and evidence" in the case.
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Hamidi sought for the trial, which was to resume on Monday (April 10), to be postponed because of the latest development and to wait for the decision on the representation.
According to Hamidi, the representation letter which contained more than 200 pages was addressed to Attorney General Tan Sri Idrus Harun himself and the prosecution would need to study it.
The prosecution did not object to the postponement, he said.
Deputy public prosecutor Abdul Malik Ayob confirmed that the prosecution had received the lengthy representation letter, which he said contained "complex issues".
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He also confirmed that the prosecution was instructed not to object to a postponement.
The judge then asked the DPP about the time needed to study and decide on the representation.
Abdul Malik replied that the AGC also received a letter attached to the representation from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), stating it would investigate the new issues raised by Ahmad Zahid's defence.
He said the prosecution had not received any information on the investigation but needed its outcome to decide on the representation.
"We do not know whether the investigation has begun or otherwise, (but) to complete the entire process, we would require the result of the investigation," Abdul Malik said.
Justice Sequerah then allowed the postponement.
He fixed Aug 1 for parties to inform the court on the result of the representation.
Ahmad Zahid is facing 47 charges, involving 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, a charitable foundation he established.
