PUTRAJAYA: Datuk Seri Mohd Isa Samad remains incarcerated at the Sungai Buloh Prison after failing in his application to review a decision by an earlier panel of the Federal Court over his conviction and sentence in his graft case involving the purchase of a hotel in Sarawak.
A three-judge panel of the Federal Court, chaired by Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Justice Azizah Nawawi, found that there was no miscarriage of justice in Mohd Isa’s case.
His relatives were seen embracing him before he was taken away by prison authorities after the decision was delivered yesterday.
In the unanimous decision, Justice Azizah said that during the Federal Court’s proceedings, Mohd Isa’s lawyers had focused on defending the decision of the Court of Appeal (that acquitted Mohd Isa) and had not addressed the merits of the defence.
“Having chosen that course, the applicant cannot now complain that he was denied the right to be heard. From the notes of the proceedings, the Federal Court did not, at any time, prevent and restrict the applicant from making any argument before the decision was reserved.
“Therefore, it cannot be said that the applicant was not given a chance to argue on the merits of his defence,” Justice Azizah said.
On the issue of failure to allow the applicant to mitigate before sentencing, she said there was no failure by the previous panel as the Federal Court was only exercising appellate jurisdiction while the finding of guilt was already made by the High Court.
She said Mohd Isa’s mitigation had been addressed at the High Court stage and did not require separate submission as the prosecution did not seek an enhanced sentence at the Federal Court, but only to reinstate the High Court’s conviction and sentence.
“There is no miscarriage of justice if the court gives the defence an opportunity to argue even if the defence chooses not to make submissions,” she added.
“For the whole said reasons, we find that there is no miscarriage of justice and therefore the motion is hereby dismissed.”
On Feb 10, the Federal Court unanimously set aside the Court of Appeal’s decision in acquitting Mohd Isa and reinstated the High Court’s conviction and sentence in the case.
The Federal Court said the High Court’s conviction for Mohd Isa’s nine charges was “correct and safe”, and restored the six-year jail term and RM15.45mil fine imposed by the High Court.
