KL Sessions Court fixes Aug 1 for Peter Anthony decision

KUALA LUMPUR: The Sessions Court has fixed Aug 1 for the decision in the application filed by former Sabah infrastructure development minister Datuk Peter Anthony (pic) for a stay of the conviction in his case where he was found guilty of using fake documents.

Sessions Court judge Azura Alwi set the date after hearing lengthy submissions from parties here on Thursday (July 28).

Deputy Public Prosecutor Datuk Wan Shaharuddin Wan Ladin submitted that the stay application did not have merit and against the law because the Sessions Court has fulfilled its judicial function (functus officio).

Wan Shaharuddin said the defence relied on Section 311 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) as the basis of its application.

"The Section stated specifically that a judge has the discretion to decide whether to allow or not a stay of sentencing or conviction,” he said

"The Sessions Court judge already allowed a stay of execution on the jail time against the accused. It must be reminded that the accused already paid his fine," Wan Shaharuddin added.

He further argued that the defence's application for the stay could only be allowed if there was a clerical error, as stated under Section 278 of the CPC.

"Clearly, there was no clerical error and therefore the defence's application for the accused to be granted a stay of conviction is baseless at this point," he added.

Meanwhile, Peter's lawyer S. Devanandan argued that there was a precedent for his client's application to stay the conviction, as it was on the same grounds as in the case of Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

This was to allow the applicant to contest in the coming general election.

He said Peter's appeal has merit and a good chance of having the conviction overturned and added that Peter would be disqualified from contesting in the election if the application was not allowed.

On May 26, Peter was sentenced to three years’ jail and a fine of RM50,000 in default of 15 months' in jail by the Sessions Court for using false documents relating to a system maintenance contract nine years ago.

According to the charge, Peter, as the managing director of Asli Jati, had allegedly forged a letter from the office of the UMS deputy vice-chancellor dated June 9, 2014, by inserting a false statement with the intention of using it for fraudulent purposes.

The former vice president of Parti Warisan was accused of committing the offence at the office of the principal private secretary to the prime minister at the Perdana Putra building in Putrajaya between June 13 and Aug 21, 2014.

The charge was framed under Section 468 of the Penal Code for forging a document for the purpose of cheating which provides for imprisonment of up to seven years and a fine, if found guilty.

At the prosecution stage, a total of 15 witnesses including Najib, former treasury secretary-general Tan Sri Dr Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah and former chief justice Tun Zaki Azmi who was appointed UMS board of directors chairman from April 3, 2013, to July 31, 2018, were called to testify at the trial which began on April 5 last year.