By Hafiz Yatim | The Edge Malaysia
Lawyers for Datuk Seri Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin told the Sessions Court that they have filed an appeal against last month’s ruling which denied their request to transfer his graft case to the High Court.
Datuk Amer Hamzah Arshad informed Sessions Court judge Suzana Hussin that his client, former senior political secretary to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, had filed a notice of appeal on Wednesday (May 6).
Amer Hamzah of Messrs AmerBon, who appeared with Yusmadi Yusoff and Joshua Tay, said they are not applying for a stay of the hearing date, as they have yet to receive the full documents for this trial.
Earlier, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Farah Ezlin Yusop Khan informed Suzana that the prosecution had submitted several documents that would be used in the trial as per the requirement under Section 51 of the Criminal Procedure Code.
“There is another set of documents that is pending to be handed to the defence. Following this, the prosecution applied for another case management date,” the DPP said.
Amer Hamzah concurred that they received the documents and that there are some still pending documents that they have yet to receive. He agreed that another case management date be set.
“On the stay of proceedings, we will see how it goes with regard to the documents,” he added.
As a result of this, Suzana fixed June 29 as case management.
On April 28, High Court judge Noor Ruwena Md Nurdin dismissed Shamsul Iskandar’s application to transfer his graft case to the High Court.
“As the law is settled on this issue, I see no reason to depart from established judicial precedent, some of which are binding […],” she said in dismissing the transfer.
Shamsul is facing five charges under Section 17 of the MACC Act for allegedly accepting cash from businessman Albert Tei Jiann Chieng in connection with his official duties.
All charges were framed under Section 17(a) of the MACC Act 2009 (Act 694) and are punishable under Section 24(1), which provides for a maximum prison term of 20 years and a fine of not less than five times the gratification’s value or RM10,000, whichever is higher, upon conviction.
Edited by Isabelle Francis
