PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal has fixed Nov 18 to decide in the appeal against the acquittal of Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin and his wife Datin Seri Zizie Izette Abdul Samad from three corruption charges involving RM2.8mil linked to a Felcra Bhd investment.
A three-judge panel chaired by Justice Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim set the date after hearing oral submissions from lawyers representing Bung and Zizie here on Wednesday (Oct 9).
"The court is of the opinion that the written submissions were sufficient for us to make an analysis and a decision. There is no need to delay. We fix Nov 18 to deliver the decision," Justice Ahmad Zaidi said.
Other judges on the bench were Justices Mohamed Zaini Mazlan and Noorin Badaruddin.
Earlier, lawyer Datuk Seri K. Kumaraendran submitted to the court that two prosecution witnesses themselves had testified that there was no money received by Bung Moktar.
"Why should his defence be called when the prosecution witnesses themselves said that money was never received, which was the basic premise of Bung Moktar's charge," Kumaraendran said.
Meanwhile, Deputy Public Prosecutor Maziah Mohaide informed the court that the prosecution intended to use only the written submission.
She said her colleague Deputy Public Prosecutor Law Chin How, who is in charge of the case, was absent due to medical reasons.
"The appellant (the prosecution) will be using our written submission fully.
"If the court seeks clarification (on issues raised in the submissions), I apologise as I am unable to do the clarification," she said.
The Kinabatangan MP and his wife were acquitted and discharged on Sept 7, 2023, after the High Court allowed their revision applications to overturn the Sept 2, 2022, Sessions Court ruling that had ordered them to enter their defence on the corruption charges. The prosecution filed its appeal on Sept 18, 2023.
Bung Moktar - who was then the non-executive chairman of Felcra - was charged on May 3, 2019, with two counts of accepting bribes of RM2.2mil and RM262,500 as an inducement to obtain Felcra approval to invest RM150mil in Public Mutual unit trusts.
He was alleged to have accepted the bribes from Public Mutual Bhd’s investment agent Madhi Abdul Hamid through Zizie Izette at Public Bank's Taman Melawati Branch between 12.30pm and 5pm on June 12, 2015.
Zizie Izette was charged with three counts of abetting her husband over the matter at the same place, date, and time.
