Court allows another stay on Bung, wife’s RM2.8m corruption trial

The Kuala Lumpur High Court ordered another stay over the trial of Deputy Sabah Chief Minister Bung Moktar Radin and his wife Zizie Izette Abdul Samad which was initially scheduled to begin today.

The greenlight by High Court judicial commissioner Azhar Abdul Hamid this morning was given pending disposal of the couple’s related appeal at the Court of Appeal.

Azhar’s ruling came during open-court proceedings over a stay application raised by the couple’s lawyers, M Athimulan and K Kumaraendran. Deputy public prosecutor Mohd Sophian Zakaria did not object to the bid.

Kinabatangan MP Bung and Zizie are appealing against Azhar’s decision on Dec 9 last year to dismiss their revision bid against the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court ruling for them to enter their defence in the case.

Earlier on Sept 2, Sessions Court trial judge Rozina Ayob ruled that the prosecution succeeded in proving a prima facie (answerable) case against Bung and his wife Zizie, and ordered the duo to enter their defence over corruption charges totalling RM2.8 million over unit trust investments.

Later on Sept 23, the High Court allowed the couple’s application to stay the defence stage of the trial before the lower court, pending disposal of their revision application to quash Rozina’s ruling.

However, the prosecution raised a preliminary objection over the couple’s mode of revision, and Azhar agreed with this before dismissing the revision bid by Bung and Zizie. The couple’s appeal at the Court of Appeal is over this ruling by Azhar.

Then on Dec 23, Bung and Zizie filed an application seeking the High Court's greenlight to stay the defence-stage trial, citing special circumstances and the existence of several legal issues in the appeal in favour of the appellants, that have a high probability of being allowed by the Court of Appeal.

According to the stay application, the couple also claimed that their appeal before the Court of Appeal would be rendered nugatory (pointless) if the criminal trial before them at the Sessions Court is allowed to proceed during the appeal.

When the matter came up before Rozina later this morning, both Sophian and Athimulan informed the trial judge that the High Court ordered a stay over the trial initially set before her today.

When she asked when the couple’s appeal is set to come up for hearing before the Court of Appeal, Athimulan informed her that it was set for case management before the appeal court on Jan 25.

At this juncture, Rozina sternly reminded both parties to expedite the appeal as the graft case before the lower court has been long-standing for over the past three years.

“This (graft case against Bung and Zizie) has dragged on since 2019. It is a 2019 matter, still pending without an end (tanpa penghujung).

“So it is for the prosecution or defence to write in (to the Court of Appeal), so the matter can be expedited. Surely both accused (Bung and Zizie) also would like to see the end of the matter.

“It is hoped both parties would take more positive steps to get the Court of Appeal to set an early date (to hear the couple’s appeal),” Rozina told the prosecution and defence teams.

The Sessions Court judge then fixed the mention on Jan 27 for parties to update her on the progress of the appeal.

30 witnesses testified

On May 17 last year, the prosecution closed its case after calling 30 witnesses to testify at the lower court trial that began on Jan 2, 2020.

Among the prosecution witnesses called to testify were former finance minister II Ahmad Husni Mohamad Hanadzlah, former Felcra Investments general manager Adnan Yusof, Felcra board member Habibah Suleiman, MACC assistant superintendent Norsharil Saharom, Public Mutual agent Madhi Abdul Hamid and unit trust consultant Norhaili Ahmad Mokhtar.

Back on May 3, 2019, Bung claimed trial to three charges of accepting bribes amounting to RM2.8 million to obtain approval for Felcra Berhad to invest RM150 million in Public Mutual unit trusts.

According to the first charge, Bung, who was then the non-executive chairperson of Felcra, was accused of accepting bribes of RM2.2 million in cash from Madhi, through Zizie, at Public Bank's Taman Melawati branch in Kuala Lumpur between 12.30pm and 5pm on June 12, 2015.

For the second charge, Bung is accused of accepting a bribe of RM262,500 in cash from Madhi through the Public Islamic Treasures Growth Fund (PITGF) account number 044797816 registered in the name of Zizie, for a similar purpose.

Bung is also accused of accepting a bribe of RM337,500 in cash from Norhaili through the Public Ittikal Sequel Fund (Pitseq) account number 044797824 registered in Zizie’s name.

The latter two offences were allegedly committed at the same location at 12.16pm and 12.28pm on June 19, 2015.

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