By Bernama | The Star
The hearing of former Sabah Chief Minister Tan Sri Musa Aman’s application to strike out his 46 counts of corruption and money laundering linked to timber concessions scheduled today (April 22) at the High Court here has been vacated.
Musa’s lead counsel Amer Hamzah Arshad said that the hearing, which was fixed for Wednesday and Thursday (April 23), has been postponed and a new hearing date would be fixed later.
“Both parties have yet to complete the exchange of the affidavits due to the extension of the movement control order (MCO).
“So, no date has been fixed. Court will fix a date after the affidavits have been filed by both parties, ” he said when contacted by Bernama on Wednesday.
The 69-year-old accused had filed the application on Feb 12 on the grounds that the charges were baseless.
Musa is facing 30 charges of corruption and 16 charges of money laundering.
The corruption charges alleged that Musa in his capacity as Sabah Chief Minister and chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Sabah Foundation, had received US$50.1mil (RM220mil) from eight logging concessionaires as an inducement to approve logging concessions for 16 companies.
He is alleged to have committed the offences at eight banks and financial institutions in Hong Kong, China and Singapore between Dec 20, 2004, and Nov 6, 2008.
In reference to the money laundering charges, Musa allegedly instructed Richard Christopher Barnes, 67, to open an account at UBS AG Bank in the latter’s name, with the intention of receiving proceeds of illegal activities through the account.
The former Chief Minister allegedly received US$37,845,491.60 and another sum of S$2.5 million in proceeds from illegal activities from several individuals through the account under Barnes’ name.
Musa is also alleged to have concealed the proceeds of illegal activities.
