The Federal Court was today told that it has no jurisdiction to hear former Perwaja Steel managing director Eric Chia's appeal against a decision to allow evidence gathered from witnesses in Hong Kong in his ongoing criminal breach of trust (CBT) trial.

Senior deputy public prosecutor Mohd Yusof Zainal Abiden told the court that Chia had exhausted his avenue to appeal against the decision because the Court of Appeal was the final court to decide on it, Bernama reports.

He said the matter originated from the Sessions Court which dismissed the prosecution's bid to admit the Hong Kong evidence before it brought up for revision at the Kuala Lumpur High Court which reversed the decision.

He said when the High Court's decision was affirmed by the Court of Appeal, Chia's avenue for appeal ended.

He further argued that Section 87 of the Courts of Judicature Act only allowed the Federal Court to hear and determine appeals originating from the Court of Appeal and the High Court and not matters brought in by way of revisions.

Yusof raised the issue in a preliminary objection which asked the court to dismiss Chia's appeal without hearing arguments of the matter.

The three-member panel comprising of Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim and Federal Court judges Alauddin Sheriff and Richard Malanjum reserved their decision for a date to be fixed later.

Special jurisdiction

Chia, 73, who is also former managing director of Perwaja Rolling Mill Development Sdn Bhd, is charged with committing CBT involving RM76.4 million at his office at Menara UBN, Jalan P.Ramlee, Kuala Lumpur, between Nov 4, 1993 and Feb 22, 1994.

He is alleged to have dishonestly authorised a payment of RM76.4 million into the account of Frilsham Enterprise Incorporated at the American Express Bank Limited in Hong Kong. The payment was allegedly for technical assistance rendered by NKK Corporation of Japan for a "beam and section mill plant" project in Gurun, Kedah. Chia is alleged to have done this when no payment should have been made.

He also faces an alternative charge of disposing the money by signing an agreement with NKK Corporation and approving the payment without the approval of the board of directors or the tender committee of Perwaja Rolling Mill Development Sdn Bhd.

Rebutting Yusof's arguments, Chia's counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah argued that the power to revise a court's ruling was a specially created jurisdiction given to the High Court to supervise the proceedings in the lower courts.

He said the revisionary power given to the High Court was concurrent with the original jurisdiction of the High Court and was not a separate jurisdiction given to the High Court.