PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal has ordered the High Court to re-hear applications filed by former Sabah deputy chief minister Bung Moktar Radin and his wife, Zizie Izette Samad, to review a lower court ruling ordering them to enter their defence on charges of corruption and abetment.
Justice Hadhariah Syed Ismail said that the couple’s bid was not heard by the High Court last year as the revision was rejected on technical grounds.
“(In) an application for revision, (the court) is duty bound to consider the merits of the application.
“But it was not done in this case when the High Court dismissed the application on grounds that the counsels filed the application using the wrong mode,” she said.
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Justices Azman Abdullah and Azmi Ariffin sat with Hadhariah on the panel hearing the appeal.
Bung, the Kinabatangan MP, is charged with three counts of accepting bribes totalling RM2.8 million as an inducement to obtain Felcra Bhd’s approval to invest RM150 million in Public Mutual unit trust products while Zizie was charged with abetting him.
The sessions court had in September last year ordered the couple to enter their defence to the charges.
After the ruling, Bung and Zizie filed motions seeking a review by the High Court of the sessions court’s order directing them to enter their defence.
The couple claimed the sessions court judge had erred in law and fact when ruling that the prosecution had proved they had received bribes from two investment agents, Madhi Abdul Hamid and Norhaili Ahmad Mokhtar, who were key prosecution witnesses in the case.
On Dec 9 last year, the High Court dismissed the motions. Judicial commissioner Azhar Abdul Hamid accepted the prosecution’s preliminary objection that the couple had used the wrong mode when seeking the review. Azhar said the review ought to have been requested by way of a letter to the court.
Bung and Zizie were represented by lawyers M Athimulan and K Kumaraendran while deputy public prosecutor Law Chin How appeared for the prosecution.
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