KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 9 — Datuk Hasanah Abdul Hamid, the former director-general of the Malaysian External Intelligence Organisation (MEIO), is today fully discharged and acquitted by the High Court of criminal breach of trust (CBT) involving RM50.4 million funds belonging to the government.
The decision was made by Judicial Commissioner Roz Mawar Rozain during hearing in court this morning and the prosecution did not object to her application to vary the initial discharge not amounting to acquittal (DNAA) order granted on April 12 last year.
The decision means Hasanah cannot be charged and tried again for the same offence under Section 409 of the Penal Code.
“I am aware and I'm going to stay faithful and true to the law that the court has the power to grant an acquittal especially once Section 254 of the Criminal Procedure Code is invoked by the prosecution.
“Based on the fact that prosecution does not desire in conducting the matter, this court is going to grant a discharge amounting to an acquittal on the applicant.
“It's not fair to have it hung over her head for more than a year now. I do not think justice is served,” Roz Mawar said in delivering her judgment after submissions from Hasanah's lawyer Datuk Suhaimi Ibrahim.
Earlier, Suhaimi argued for the amended order to be granted on the premise that the prosecution’s case is no tenable.
“They are not able to proceed anymore because the main ingredient has collapsed.
“Subsequently, another issue is that they no longer have the main exhibit which is involved in the said charge.
“It is not wrong for the applicant in this case to submit that the prosecution case has collapsed,” Suhaimi said in his submissions.
Deputy public prosecutor Mohd Fairuz Johari, who appeared on behalf of the Attorney General Chambers, did not raise any objection to Hasanah's application but agreed that a full acquittal was an “appropriate and fit” end to the case.
Last year, High Court judge Datuk Ahmad Shahrir Mohd Salleh granted Hasanah a DNNA after the prosecution said it would not continue the trial proceedings against Hasanah at that point in time.
However, Ahmad Shahrir noted that the prosecution said it planned to continue charges against Hasanah in the future, which was why no acquittal was given then.
Hasanah was charged on October 25, 2018 with committing CBT over US$12.1 million (RM50.4 million) of funds belonging to the Malaysian government.
She was accused of having committed the offence under Section 409 of the Penal Code in her capacity as a civil servant in the Research Division of the Prime Minister’s Department in Putrajaya between April 30, 2018 and May 9, 2018.
Under Section 409 of the Penal Code, the offence of criminal breach of trust by a public servant is punishable with a jail term of between two to 20 years, and with whipping and also fining upon conviction.
