Zahid's trial postponed for him to attend Cabinet meeting

KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s trial for criminal breach of trust, corruption and money laundering involving Yayasan Akalbudi (YAB) funds was postponed by the High Court here on Wednesday (Aug 2) because the Deputy Prime Minister had to attend a Cabinet meeting.

His lawyer Datuk Hisyam Teh Poh Teik told reporters outside the court that the defence had applied to presiding judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah to postpone the hearing this morning.

"We have applied for adjournment this morning because Datuk Seri (Ahmad Zahid) has got to attend a Cabinet meeting. The court has allowed for today to be taken off and the case will continue tomorrow,” said Hisyam.

The seventh defence witness, Ahmad Zahid’s former executive secretary Datuk Rosiah Osman, was supposed to continue with her testimony at today’s proceedings.

Ahmad Zahid, 70, is making his defence on 12 CBT, eight corruption and 27 money laundering charges involving tens of millions of ringgit belonging to YAB.

He completed giving his testimony on Aug 30 last year after 17 days of making his defence on oath from the witness stand, denying all the charges against him.

The trial was supposed to have continued from April 10 to July this year but was postponed after Ahmad Zahid made a representation to the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) to drop the 47 charges.

The High Court then fixed hearing for this month, Aug 1 to 3, 7 to 10 and 21 to 24.

Yesterday, AGC Trials and Appeals Division head Datuk Mohd Dusuki Mokhtar told the court that no decision had been made yet on Ahmad Zahid’s representation because the AGC was still awaiting the findings of further investigations conducted by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Special Task Force regarding the new evidence submitted by the defence. - Bernama