KUALA LUMPUR, July 24 — The Malaysian Bar filed a notice to the Court of Appeal today over the High Court’s decision to dismiss its challenge against the Attorney General’s Chambers (AGC) to ask for a discharge not amounting to an acquittal (DNAA) in Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s Yayasan Akalbudi case.
The notice was filed by the Bar’s solicitors from Messrs Abhilaash Subramaniam & Co.
In the notice sighted by Malay Mail, the Bar said it was appealing to the appellate court the whole decision made by High Court judge Datuk Amarjeet Singh Serjit Singh on June 27.
Amarjeet had held that the Bar did not fulfil the threshold requirement under Section 96 of the Courts of Judicature Act (CJA) and so, leave could not be granted to them.
Both the attorney general and the deputy prime minister were named as the respondents in the now dismissed suit.
On September 4, 2023, the prosecution decided to discontinue the Yayasan Akalbudi trial, which resulted in the High Court granting Ahmad Zahid a DNAA for all 47 corruption charges he faced.
Ahmad Zahid was accused of 12 counts of criminal breach of trust in relation to over RM31 million of his charitable organisation Yayasan Akalbudi’s funds, 27 counts of money laundering, and eight counts of bribery charges of over RM21.25 million in alleged bribes.
At that time, prosecutors said further investigations on Ahmad Zahid’s case had to be carried out, following the representations from the accused to the AG to ask for all 47 charges to be reviewed.
Trial judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah said that the prosecution had “given cogent reasons” for seeking the DNAA.
Up until Ahmad Zahid’s DNAA, the prosecution had called a total of 99 witnesses, while the defence called 15 of its own witnesses.
