KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court here has accepted most of the written witness statement by Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi's (pic) press secretary, Major General (R) Datuk Fadzlette Othman Merican Idris Merican, with the exception of some minor lines that were deemed to have injured the character of a prosecution witness.
Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah, in his decision, found that three paragraphs - paragraph 17 (parts of), 18 (whole sentence) and 22 (parts of) - were caught under Section 153 of the Evidence Act 1950.
"I find that Section 153 applies to very specific circumstances and that is where the evidence adduced goes only as far as to injure the character of the witness and not relevant to the facts and issue (of the case)," said the judge at Ahmad Zahid's Yayasan Akalbudi (YAB) corruption trial here on Wednesday (Sept 21).
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The court, however, found that apart from the three paragraphs, the rest of the disputed paragraphs between paragraph 16 and 30 relate to the facts and issue which formed the core of the defence case.
"Therefore, they are not collateral matters caught under Section 153 of the Evidence Act," Justice Sequerah added.
The court then ordered for the witness statement to be amended accordingly.
On Monday (Sept 19), Deputy Public Prosecutor Datuk Raja Rozela Raja Toran wanted the court to reject parts of Fadzlette's written statement.
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The prosecution took issue with paragraph 16 to 30 that touched on Ahmad Zahid's former executive secretary Major Mazlina Mazlan @ Ramly, a prosecution witness, and wanted those parts to be expunged on grounds that the statements were put in solely to damage Major Mazlina's character.
"But Major Mazlina's credibility has already been challenged during the defence's cross-examination," the prosecution had said.
The prosecutor had also said that they would be objecting to four other upcoming witness statements by defence witnesses.
On this regard, Justice Sequerah said in his decision that he would be accepting the four proposed witness statements in order to save the court's time.
"Therefore those witness statements will be admitted as they are but without prejudice to the prosecution's right to ask for the offending paragraphs or portions of the witness statements to be expunged at the end of the case by way of submission of the whole case," he said.
The defence, in its rebuttal to the prosecution's application on Tuesday (Sept 20), had argued that Ahmad Zahid would be deprived of a fair trial if Fadzlette's witness statement was not accepted in its totality.
The hearing continues this afternoon with Fadzlette taking the stand.
Ahmad Zahid is facing 47 charges – 12 for criminal breach of trust (CBT), eight for corruption and 27 for money laundering – involving tens of millions of ringgit belonging to YAB.
