Defence has identified 20 witnesses, Zahid’s counsel tells court

 

Ahmad Zahid Hamidi speaking to reporters after he was ordered to enter his defence on 47 charges of money laundering and CBT.

KUALA LUMPUR: Former deputy prime minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s defence has identified 20 potential witnesses from the 37 offered by the prosecution, lead counsel Hisyam Teh Poh Teik told the High Court.

In view of this, he asked the court for more time to prepare their case.

Previously, the court had fixed March 28 for resumption of the hearing.

“As far as we are concerned, we will accept all the 37 potential witnesses offered to us by the prosecution.

“We want to interview them and we will write to the prosecution to hand over copies of the witness statements recorded by the authorities previously,” he told trial judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah.

Sequerah then asked the lawyer how many witnesses the defence wanted to call. Hisyam replied saying the defence has identified 20 potential witnesses so far.

The court then fixed 39 days for the trial between April 26 and Nov 10

Deputy public prosecutor Raja Rozela Raja Toran objected to the defence’s request for the witness statements, adding that it should file an application if it insists on obtaining the documents.

Zahid told reporters later that he accepted the court’s decision in calling him to enter his defence on all 47 corruption, money laundering and criminal breach trust (CBT) charges against him.

He said his lawyers would conduct the defence according to the legal procedures available.

Sequerah had earlier ruled that the prosecution had established a prima facie case against Zahid on charges of money laundering and CBT involving millions of ringgit from Yayasan Akalbudi, and accepting bribes for various projects during his tenure as home minister.

Twelve of the charges are for CBT, eight for corruption and the remainder for money laundering. - FMT