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KUALA LUMPUR: Session Court Judge Rozina Ayob, who is presiding over the corruption case involving Bung Moktar Radin and his wife, Zizie Ezette A Samad, today expressed her disappointment at having had to cancel the dates that had been set to continue with the hearing of the case this day. week.
The case had to be postponed because the Kinabatangan deputy, who is also Sabah’s chief deputy minister, had to attend the state legislative assembly (DUN) session.
Rozina berated Bung Moktar’s attorneys for the delay in sending the letter to request that the dates, December 21-24, be canceled, saying the letter was only sent on December 17.
“I’m very disappointed. I’m sure you know the Sabah DUN session schedule much earlier, I think 14 days before the session.
“The prosecution has verified the procedures for the DUN session, its requirements and others.
“I’m sure you (defense attorneys) know a lot, long before. Why was the letter sent only at the last minute, on December 17?
“We are wasting the court’s time. If in fact the case cannot continue, I can at least call other cases to be heard. So now you’ve wasted my whole week, ”he said.
The court had scheduled today to continue with the hearing of the case for the defense to question the ninth prosecution witness, the special officer of the former president of Felcra, Nazrul Aswad.
Attorney K Kumaraendran, representing Zizie, said the defense took full responsibility for the delay and apologized to Rozina on behalf of Bung Moktar’s attorney, M Athimulan, who was unable to appear in court today.
Zizie and another of Bung Moktar’s lawyers, Ridha Abdah Subri, were in court today.
Kumaraendran also told the court that Bung Moktar, who is also the Lamag assemblyman, was informed at the last minute that he had to answer some questions during the state assembly session.
To this, Rozina said that they should at least have notified the court that they may not be able to appear.
“I don’t want this kind of thing to happen again in the last hour. It is not only your case that I have to listen to; there are other matters of public concern that I have to hear.
“Please, as court officials, I am sure you are aware of court practice.”
He then told the prosecution that he had to postpone the case.
“We cannot proceed in his (Bung Moktar’s) absence, as this is a criminal matter and our next witness will be a very material witness.
“Although there are legal provisions that allow us to proceed with the case (without the presence of the accused), but for justice and fairness in this matter, I allow the dates to be canceled and the court will have to reschedule the trial to another date”, added.
Deputy Prosecutor Siti Noor Hafizan Zakaria also informed the court that the prosecution would call 17 more witnesses once the ninth prosecution witness had finished testifying.
Rozina then postponed the trial until January 11 and asked the defense to submit a full schedule for the Sabah DUN session to make it easier for the court to reschedule other trial dates.
“For January 11, defense, please confirm the dates I requested because I do not want to receive a letter like this stating that I had to attend the session.
“It will not look good because both (the court case and the DUN) are in the public interest and both are important to the people,” he added.
On May 3 last year, 60-year-old Bung Moktar pleaded not guilty to two counts of accepting bribes amounting to 2.2 million ringgit and 262,500 ringgit as an incentive to obtain Felcra’s approval to make an investment of 150 million ringgit in public mutual unit trusts.
Bung Moktar, who was then the non-executive chairman of Felcra, was accused of taking bribes from Public Mutual investment broker Madhi Abdul Hamid, 38, through his wife Zizie at Public Bank Taman Melawati branch, Jalan Bandar 12, Taman Melawati, here between 12:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. on June 12, 2015.
He also pleaded not guilty to accepting a RM 335,500 bribe for himself from another Public Mutual investment broker, 42-year-old Norlaili Ahmad Mokhtar, on behalf of Zizie for the same reason.
The crime would have been committed in the same place on June 19, 2015.
Zizie has pleaded not guilty to three counts of instigating her husband to commit the alleged crimes at the same place, date and time.
