Shamsubahrin's lawyer asked to withdraw

The lawyer representing Shamsubahrin Ismail, who is charged with cheating National Feedlot Corporation (NFC) former director Mohamad Salleh Ismail, involving RM1.755 million, has been asked to withdraw from the case.

Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) prosecution unit head Abdul Razak Musa, made the request during case management of the case before Sessions Court judge Rozilah Salleh.

Abdul Razak said this was on the grounds that the lawyer Zarina Ismail was the accused's younger sister and also an important witness in the case.

"This will jeopardise the hearing process because Zarina is the list of 40 prosecution witnesses whose statements have been recorded," he said.

He said the prosecution had also provided the testimony of all the 40 witnesses and 80 documents related to the defence.

However, Zarina objected to the prosecution's request, saying that there was no grounds for the prosecution to do so as her testimony was only over the issue of the accused's mobile phone.

To this, Rozilah said the prosecution had absolute power to call anyone as witness in their case.

She said the prosecution had to submit an official application and the court would hear any objection from the defence before making a decision.

She set Aug 30 for case management and the hearing to begin on Sept 10 as was fixed earlier.

Shamsubahrin, 46, is charged with five counts of cheating Mohamad Salleh(right) into agreeing to pay him (Shamsubahrin) a fee, at a restaurant in Bukit Tunku, Kuala Lumpur at 6pm on Nov 20 last year, in return for an advisory and consulting service.

Besides the five cheating charges, Shamsubahrin, also represented by lawyer Kamarul Hisham Kamaruddin, is also charged with 17 counts of money laundering, involving RM1.755 million.

- Bernama