Prosecution seeking joint trial for Muhyiddin's power abuse, money laundering charges

KUALA LUMPUR: The prosecution is seeking for Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin's (pic) four charges on abuse of power and three charges of money laundering to be jointly heard in the same trial at the Sessions Court.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Datuk Wan Shaharuddin Wan Ladin informed Sessions Court judge Azura Alwi that the prosecution had filed its application on Thursday (May 25).

"The prosecution handed over the application to the defence today," he said when the case was brought up for mention here on Friday (May 26).

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Lawyer Datuk Hisyam Teh Poh Teik, who represented the Bersatu president, confirmed that they had received the document but the defence would require time to file in an affidavit-in-reply.

Azura then ordered for the defence to file the affidavit by June 30, which the prosecution must respond to by July 14.

The court was also informed that the prosecution sought for Muhyiddin's case in Shah Alam Sessions Court, where he was charged with receiving proceeds from illegal activities, to be transferred to the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court.

DPP Ahmad Akram Gharib applied for the charge to be read again before Azura, to which Muhyiddin made a plea of not guilty.

DPP Wan Shaharuddin also said that the prosecution had handed over half of the documents relating to the case to the defence.

"The defence filed several applications to the High Court, whereby there are three applications to transfer the case to the High Court and one application to strike out the charges.

"Due to this, we sought for a longer time for the next mention date, on Aug 4, to hand over the other half of the documents," he added.

The court then fixed Aug 4 as the next mention date.

On March 10, Muhyiddin, 76, was charged with four charges involving abuse of power over a RM232.5mil bribe and two charges of receiving RM195mil which were proceeds from illegal activities.

On March 13, Muhyiddin was again charged at the Shah Alam Sessions Court where he was accused of one count of receiving RM5mil which were proceeds from illegal activities.

Muhyiddin then filed an application to strike out the charges on April 18.

On April 27, he filed four separate applications to transfer his cases to the High Court on grounds that the cases involved complex legal issues relating to the Federal Constitution.

The transfer applications and the striking out application are set for mention at the High Court on May 31.