KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 21 — Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi today via his lawyers asked the High Court in Kuala Lumpur if his trial on Wednesday could be heard on another day instead, as he will have to attend Cabinet’s weekly meeting on that day.
Just before the end of today’s court proceedings for Zahid’s trial over his charitable foundation Yayasan Akalbudi’s funds, his lawyer Hamidi Mohd Noh informed the High Court that they would “have to ask if we can vacate for Wednesday, same as last time, the issue is Cabinet meeting on Wednesday”.
Judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah, however, asked for details in order to decide if the previously scheduled trial date should be taken off for the whole day or for half a day only.
“I’m missing so many dates, all my dates are being taken up. You need to give me details, when, and the time. If it’s in the morning, I can perhaps accommodate and we can continue in the afternoon or vice versa,” the judge said.
Hamidi then said the Cabinet meeting is normally scheduled to be at 9am in the morning and finishing past noon, but said that there would then be a post-Cabinet meeting within the respective ministries that would normally be held from 2.30pm to 4.30pm.
“So I don’t think we have the time to accommodate any court hearing on Wednesday. If we can ask for Wednesday to be vacated,” the lawyer requested after laying out the expected Wednesday schedule for Cabinet members.
The judge then said Zahid’s lawyers must provide another date to replace the lost day of hearing: “If you are asking me to vacate Wednesday for Cabinet meeting and post-Cabinet meeting, then I need a replacement date to replace the Wednesday that we can’t go on.”
Zahid’s lawyers and the prosecution then said that both sides would identify a suitable common date as replacement for this Wednesday.
Just like in former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) trial before judge Sequerah, any vacating of previously scheduled trial dates in Zahid’s Yayasan Akalbudi trial has typically resulted in replacement hearing dates being identified. Hearing dates for these two trials are usually scheduled months in advance.
Zahid’s trial has been going on since November 18, 2019.
This is the second time that Zahid’s lawyers have asked for a postponement of his trial at the High Court here due to the need for him to attend Cabinet’s meeting.
On August 2, which was also a Wednesday, Zahid was not seen in court while his lawyers applied on that morning to have the trial adjourned due to the Cabinet meeting, with the High Court at that time allowing it to be postponed. The trial then resumed the next day as scheduled.
Zahid’s trial was scheduled to run from Monday to Thursday this week (August 21 to August 24). It will resume tomorrow with Masjid Tuminah Hamidi’s project manager Ramli Ghani expected to continue testifying as the ninth defence witness.
The other hearing dates already scheduled for Zahid’s trial are September 4 to 7, November 1, November 17, November 20 to 24, November 27 to 29, December 4 to 7 and December 11 to 15.
Zahid, who is also Umno president and Barisan Nasional chairman, is facing 47 charges in this trial.
The 47 charges are namely, 12 counts of criminal breach of trust in relation to over RM31 million of Yayasan Akalbudi’s funds, 27 counts of money laundering, and eight counts of bribery charges of over RM21.25 million in alleged bribes.
