Judge disappointed in having to vacate Bung Moktar's trial dates
Sessions Court judge Rozina Ayob who presided over the corruption case involving Bung Moktar Radin and his wife, Zizie Ezette A Samad, expressed disappointment that she had to vacate the dates which had been fixed to continue hearing of the case this week.
This is because the Sabah Deputy Chief Minister, who is also the Kinabatangan Member of Parliament, has to attend the Sabah Legislative Assembly sitting.
She reprimanded Bung Moktar’s lawyers, for the delay in sending the letter to request for the dates, from Dec 21 to 24, to be vacated, saying that the letter was only sent on Dec 17...
Sessions Court judge Rozina Ayob who presided over the corruption case involving Bung Moktar Radin and his wife, Zizie Ezette A Samad, expressed disappointment that she had to vacate the dates which had been fixed to continue hearing of the case this week.
This is because the Sabah deputy chief minister, who is also the Kinabatangan MP, has to attend the Sabah Legislative Assembly sitting.
She reprimanded Bung’s lawyers, for the delay in sending the letter to request for the dates, from Dec 21 to 24, to be vacated, saying that the letter was only sent on Dec 17.
"I am very disappointed, I'm sure you know the Sabah state assembly sitting schedule much earlier, I think 14 days before the sitting. The prosecution has checked the procedure for the state assembly sitting, its requirements, and so forth.
“I'm sure you (defence lawyers) knew much much earlier. Why only at the last minute, on Dec 17, was the letter sent?
"Because (you know) why, we are wasting the court's time. If indeed, the case cannot proceed, at least I can call for other cases to hear. So now you have wasted my whole entire week," Rozina said.
The court had fixed today to continue hearing the case for the defence to cross-examine the ninth prosecution witness, the special officer to former Felcra chairperson, Nazrul Aswad.
Lawyer K Kumaraendran, representing Zizie, said the defence took full responsibility for the delay and apologised to Rozina on behalf of Bung's lawyer, M Athimulan, who was unable to appear in court today.
Zizie and another of Bung’s lawyer, Ridha Abdah Subri, were in court today.
Kumaraendran also told the court that Bung, who is also the Lamag assemblyperson, was informed at the last minute that he had to answer some questions during the state assembly sitting.
To this Rozina said they should have at least notified the court that they might not be able to turn up.
“I don't want this sort of thing to happen again, at the last hour. It is not only your case that I have to hear, but there are also other public interest matters that I have to hear. Please, as officers of the court, I'm sure you are aware of the court's practice,” she said.
She then told the prosecution that she had to postpone the case.
“We can't proceed in his (Bung'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 of this matter, I allow the dates to be vacated and the court will have to reschedule (the trial) to another date, Rozina added.
Deputy public prosecutor Siti Noor Hafizan Zakaria also informed the court that the prosecution would call 17 more witnesses after the ninth prosecution witness had completed testifying.
Rozina then postponed the trial to Jan 11 next year and asked the defence to submit a complete schedule on the dates of the Sabah state assembly sitting to make it easier for the court to reschedule other dates for the trial.
"By Jan 11, (defence) please confirm about the dates that I requested because I do not want to get a letter like this stating that he had to attend the sitting. It won't look good because both (the court case and state assembly sitting) are public interest and both are important to the people,” she added.
On May 3 last year, Bung, 60, pleaded not guilty to two counts of accepting bribes amounting to RM2.2 million and RM262,500 as an inducement to obtain Felcra’s approval to make an RM150 million investment in Public Mutual unit trusts.
Bung, who was then the non-executive chairperson of Felcra, was accused of accepting bribes from Public Mutual investment agent Madhi Abdul Hamid, 38, through his wife Zizie at the Public Bank Taman Melawati branch, Jalan Bandar 12, Taman Melawati, Kuala Lumpur, between 12.30pm and 5pm on June 12, 2015.
He also pleaded not guilty to accepting a bribe of RM335,500 for himself from another Public Mutual investment agent, Norlaili Ahmad Mokhtar, 42, under Zizie's name for the same reason.
The offence was allegedly committed at the same place on June 19, 2015.
Zizie pleaded not guilty to three counts of abetting her husband in committing the alleged offences, at the same place, date and time.
- Bernama
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