KOTA KINABALU: Former state minister Datuk Peter Anthony, who was serving a three-year sentence for a cheating case at Kajang Prison, was reportedly released on parole two weeks ago.
No official confirmation was immediately available, but sources close to the former Parti KDM president said Anthony returned to Sabah last week and was being supervised under parole conditions following his release.
The sources, who declined to be named, said that Anthony, the former Melalap assemblyman, was living at a house outside the state capital following his conditional release.
When contacted Parti KDM deputy president Datuk Wetrom Bahanda confirmed that Anthony has been given a parole but declined to further details.
The Star reached out to the Prisons Department for comment.
Under the parole system, a prisoner qualifies to serve the remainder of their sentence outside prison under specific conditions set out in the Prisons (Amendment) Act 2008.
On March 4 last year, Anthony was ordered to serve his three-year jail sentence after he was found guilty of falsifying documents related to a contract with Universiti Malaysia Sabah, following the dismissal of his final appeal to the Court of Appeal to overturn a Sessions Court decision.
On May 26, 2022, Anthony, who was then the managing director of Syarikat Asli Jati Sdn Bhd, was sentenced to three years’ jail and fined RM50,000 after being found guilty of forging a letter for a mechanical and electrical (M&E) maintenance project at UMS. He paid the fine.
He was charged with forging a letter from the office of the UMS deputy vice-chancellor, dated June 9, 2014, by inserting a false statement for fraudulent purposes.
Anthony became a state minister when Parti Warisan won the state government in 2018, but left the party to form Parti KDM in 2022.
