KUALA LUMPUR, July 28 — The Sessions Court here today set August 1 for the decision on former Sabah Infrastructure Development Minister Datuk Peter Anthony’s application for a stay of conviction for forging a document for the purpose of cheating.

Judge Azura Alwi set the date after hearing submissions from deputy public prosecutor Datuk Wan Shaharuddin Wan Ladin and lawyer S. Devanandan representing Peter.

Wan Shaharuddin earlier submitted that the application was without merit and contravened the law as the Sessions Court judge was functus officio in making her decision.

"In this case, the defence uses Section 311 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) as the basis for the application.

The Section stated specifically that a judge can use her discretion in deciding whether or not a stay of sentence or conviction can be allowed.

"And the court did allow a stay of execution of his jail sentence before.

"And he has also paid the fine imposed on him as part of the punishment,” he said, adding that the stay of conviction can only be allowed if there were clerical errors, but there were none.

Meanwhile, Devanandan said his client’s application for a stay of conviction and sentence has merit and was made with the same reason used in the case of Datuk Seri Najib Razak, namely to contest in the 15th General Election (GE15).

"If the application was not allowed, the applicant, who is Melalau assemblyman and president of Parti Kesejahteraan Demokratik Masyarakat (KDM) in Sabah, cannot contest in the GE15,” he said, adding that the application for stay of conviction was made pending appeal at the High Court.

On May 26, Azura sentenced Peter to three years’ jail and a fine of RM50,000 after he was found guilty of forging a letter for a Mechanical and Electrical Systems (M&E) maintenance work at Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS).

Judge Azura Alwi also ordered him to serve a 15 -month jail sentence if he failed to pay the fine. — Bernama