PUTRAJAYA: The acquittal of Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi from 40 charges of corruption linked to the Foreign Visa System (VLN) will remain.
This is after the Attorney General’s Chambers (AGC) withdrew its appeals against the acquittal order handed down by the Shah Alam High Court on Sept 23, 2022.
Deputy public prosecutor Datuk Yusaini Amer Abdul Karim informed a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeal that the prosecution intended to withdraw all of the appeals.
Justice Che Mohd Ruzima Ghazali, who chaired the panel, then made an order to strike out the appeals.
“Following the AG and the prosecution’s application to withdraw the appeals against the respondent (Ahmad Zahid), with this, the court strikes off the appeals,” the judge said here yesterday.
Other judges on the Bench were Justices Azman Abdullah and Azmi Ariffin.
Earlier in the proceedings, Yusaini told the appellate court that the AGC had considered two representations sent by Ahmad Zahid on Jan 26, 2023, and Feb 7, 2024, as well as the findings of the trial judge who had acquitted Ahmad Zahid.
“After considering the entirety of the case, the AGC found that there was no testimony in the case that showed the respondent had used his position directly in the awarding of the contracts that became the subject matter in the trial.
“The testimony showed that the contracts were awarded before the respondent assumed his position as the Home Minister and this showed there was no room for opportunity for the respondent to abuse his power,” Yusaini said.
The prosecution also found that the testimonies in the case had shown that the extension for the contracts in question had been done in an orderly fashion and adhered to procedure.
“The ledger recorded by the 17th prosecution witness showed various financial transaction involving many names but there is no record to show that the transactions nor the individuals were investigated throughout the case.
“The matters stated indicate that there is a serious gap in the chain of evidence in this case,” Yusaini said.
Yesterday was initially fixed for hearing of the prosecution’s appeal against Ahmad Zahid’s acquittal.
In 2022, the Shah Alam High Court acquitted Ahmad Zahid of all the charges without calling for his defence.
Justice Mohd Yazid Mustafa, in his decision then, said that the prosecution had failed to establish a prima facie case against the Umno president.
Among his findings was that the three key prosecution witnesses had been unreliable and not credible.
On Dec 29, 2022, the prosecution filed a notice of appeal against the acquittal.
Ahmad Zahid was charged with 33 counts of receiving bribes amounting to S$13.56mil (RM44.74mil at current rates) from Ultra Kirana Sdn Bhd (UKSB) for himself as Home Minister to extend the contract of the company as the operator of the one-stop centre (OSC) service in China and the VLN system, as well as to maintain its contract agreement with the Home Ministry for the supply of the VLN integrated system.
On another seven counts, the Bagan Datuk MP was charged with obtaining for himself S$1,150,000, RM3.125mil, 15,000 Swiss francs and US$15,000 from the same company which he knew had links with his official function.
He was charged with committing the offences at Seri Satria, Precinct 16, Putrajaya, and Country Heights Kajang between October 2014 and March 2018.
