By Ho Kit Yen | Free Malaysia Today
The Court of Appeal has rescheduled its decision on Baling MP Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim’s bid to strike out his corruption and money laundering charges.
This comes after Azeez’s lawyers submitted a representation to the Attorney General’s Chambers (AGC) that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) is investigating “new leads” in his case.
“(MACC Chief Commissioner) Azam Baki said they are looking into the issue and they will brief the AG in due course,” lead counsel Amer Hamzah Arshad said.
He did not disclose details of the “new leads”.
The court was supposed to give its decision today on Azeez’s appeal to quash his three corruption charges and 10 money laundering charges. The decision will now be made on Aug 26.
Azeez was charged in 2019 with accepting bribes amounting to RM5.2 million in connection with road projects in Perak and Kedah.
He also faces 10 counts of money laundering involving RM13.9 million over funds from a company, Menuju Asas Sdn Bhd.
The Umno Supreme Council member sought to nullify his corruption and money laundering charges, claiming that they were done in bad faith.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Aslinda Ahad said the prosecution had no objection to the defence’s request to adjourn the decision, pending the outcome of MACC’s investigation on the “new leads”.
Judge Abu Bakar Jais said the panel was ready to deliver its decision today, but will wait accordingly.
“Please don’t postpone (this) further,” he said.
Judge Kamaludin Md Said, who chaired the panel, said the bench would grant “one last postponement” before fixing Aug 26 to deliver their decision.
Kamaludin also asked the prosecution to decide on whether it wanted to continue with charging Azeez, saying “it doesn’t need to take one year to do so”.
Also on the panel was judge Che Mohd Ruzima Ghazali.
