Zahid’s corruption case to be filed for hearing in High Court
SHAH ALAM: The Sessions Court here yesterday was told that 40 charges of receiving bribes involving the overseas visa (VLN) system faced by former Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi will be filed by the prosecution for hearing at the High Court.
Counsel Datuk Ahmad Zaidi Zainal who represented Ahmad Zahid informed the court this during the proceedings for the management of the case in the presence of Judge Rozilah Salleh.
“The defence and prosecution have discussed the matter and agreed that the prosecution will hand over all documents relating to the case to us in a month’s time. After that, we will file the case and apply for it to be heard in the High Court here,” he said.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Gan Peng Kun also informed the court that he needed time as there were more than 500 documents being prepared to be handed-over to the defence.
Rozilah then set October 25 for management of the case in the same court.
Earlier, Gan told the court the prosecution had withdrawn its application to transfer 33 charges of bribery faced by Ahmad Zahid to be heard at the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court.
“The prosecution has withdrawn the application (to transfer 33 charges to the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court) as a review of the case at the Kuala Lumpur High Court (to transfer seven more charges of bribery to the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court) had been rejected and the judge ordered for all cases to remain for hearing at this court,” he said.
On July 31, the prosecution applied to the Kuala Lumpur High Court to review the decision by the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court agreeing to the request by Ahmad Zahid to transfer seven charges for hearing together with 33 more charges of graft involving the VLN he faced in the sessions court here.
However, on August 28, the Kuala Lumpur High Court rejected the application for review as it did not find anything wrong in the order to transfer the case to the Shah Alam Sessions Court made by the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court under Section 104 of the Subordinate Courts Act 1948.
On June 26, Ahmad Zahid was charged with seven counts of bribery amounting to SGD4.24 million involving the VLN system two years ago.
On all charges, Ahmad Zahid was charged with receiving bribery amounting to SGD4.24 million from Syarikat Ultra Kirana Sdn Bhd, as incentive for him as a public servant, as Home Minister in the Malaysian Home Ministry (KDN), to extend the contract of the company as operator of the One Stop Centre in China, and the VLN system.
Ahmad Zahid was charged with committing the offence at Seri Satria, Presint 16, Putrajaya between March 28, 2017 and March 2, 2018. - Bernama