Court of Appeal: Salleh’s CBT trial must proceed.

Suggests he makes representations for charges to be withdrawn if he has a good defence based on prosecution’s documents.

PUTRAJAYA:The Court of Appeal today dismissed Dr Mohamad Salleh Ismail’s appeal for two criminal breach of trust (CBT) charges preferred against him to be struck out, but left the door open for the National Feedlot Corporation Sdn Bhd (NFCorp) executive chairman to make representations to the prosecution to ask that they be withdrawn.

“If the defence has a good defence based on documents supplied by the prosecution, they can make a representation to the Attorney-General’s Chambers to reconsider the charges,” Court of Appeal president Md Raus Sharif suggested.

The court, however, held that it was not in a position to stop Salleh’s trial which was already underway in the Sessions Court.

Raus was leading a panel of three judges comprising Justices Abdul Aziz Abd Rahim and Lim Yee Lan.

Earlier, Salleh’s lead counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah argued that the two CBT charges against his client were groundless and ought to be struck out as there were sufficient supporting documents including a shareholders’ resolution to show that advances made by the company to Salleh had been ratified.

He submitted further that if these charges were struck out, two other charges preferred against Salleh which were not part of this appeal would likewise have no prospects of success.

Outside court, Shafee told reporters that he will take up the judges’ suggestion and make the necessary representations to the Attorney-General’s Chambers for the charges to be withdrawn.

Salleh, 66, is facing two charges under section 409 of the Penal Code, one for allegedly misappropriating RM40 million by transferring the same to another company which his family owns, and the other for utilising RM9,758,140 to part-finance the purchase of two condominium units in Kuala Lumpur.

He faces two other charges under Section 132(2)(a) of the Companies Act 1965 for allegedly using the company’s funds without the approval of its general meeting to effect part-payment for the purchase of the condominium units.