Hearing deferment application by ex-deputy director allowed

KOTA KINABALU: The Court of Appeal here allowed an application to adjourn a hearing for preliminary objection raised by the prosecution against three appeals by a former Sabah State Water Department deputy director on three issues related to his money laundering charges to July 23.

Justice Dato’ Abdul Rahman Sebli, who sat together with Justices Dato’ Mary Lim Thiam Suan and Datuk Hasnah Dato’ Mohammed Hashim unanimously granted the postponement application made by counsel Roland Cheng, who represented Teo Chee Kong after hearing explanation from the counsel yesterday.

Roland told the court they had just been served the hard copy of the application yesterday and they needed time to do some research about the matters and it would be unfair to his client if the hearing to be proceeded yesterday.

The counsel also explained that the adjournment applied was also because they wanted to perfect their record of appeals after the said court had allowed their application to include fresh evidence to their notices of motions, including these appeals.

Deputy public prosecutor Tengku Amir Zaki Tengku Hj Abd Rahman, who informed the court that they were ready to proceed with their application, however raised no objection to the postponement application and confirmed that they had just filed the application last Friday to the court.

Teo is appealing against the High Court’s decision made on March 21, 2018, which had dismissed his three revisions which all related to his cases at the Sessions Court here.

His first application was to quash his 146 charges as he found that there was no merit in the criminal application.

The 52-year-old appellant’s second and third applications were against the joint trial order by the Sessions Court here and to recuse the presiding judge from hearing his trial respectively.

Teo had filed the three revisions through his counsel Roland, Ram Singh and Nelson W. Angang to revise the decisions made by the Corruption Court here.

On January 30, 2018, the Corruption Court here had dismissed two applications by Teo to have the judge recused himself from hearing his case and Teo’s objection to be jointly tried with an ex-director of the same department, Ag Mohd Tahir Mohd Talib and two others with his cases.

Ag Tahir, Fauziah Piut, 52, and another former deputy director before Teo, Lim Lam Beng @ Lim Chee Hong, 63, are facing separate money laundering charges.

Teo was accused of possessing 70 pieces of lands and cash allegedly obtained from illegal activities.

All his charges were framed under Sections 4 (1) (a) and 4 (1) (b), both of the AntiMoney Laundering and AntiTerrorism Financing Act 2001 and Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001.

The first 78 charges accused Teo of possessing the lands obtained from illegal activities through 78 transactions of transferring ownership worth RM12,705,203.70.

The other 68 counts accused Teo of possessing cash amounting to RM7,930,810.48 (5,952,050 of Malaysian Ringgit and RM1,978,760.48 from foreign currency) and also cash of RM12,287,240.07 at financial institutions.

The charges stated that Teo had committed the alleged offences at separate locations at land district offices and bank branches here, in Penampang and Beaufort between 2005 and 2016.

During his first arraignment in December, 2017, the court released Teo on RM1.5 million bail with RM500,000 to be deposited with two local sureties.

The court also ordered for Teo’s passport to be impounded and kept by the court pending disposal of the cases and to report every Saturday to the Malaysian AntiCorruption Commission (MACC) office between 8am and 8pm.

Deputy public prosecutors Farez Rahman and Lokman Kassim assisted Tengku Amir Zaki while counsel Kimberly Ye stood in for Ram.