Judge displeased as Zahid’s lawyers seek to delay VLN graft case

 

On Sept 23, 2022, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi was acquitted of all 40 charges brought in connection with his foreign visa system corruption case. (Bernama pic)

PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal is unhappy over the move by Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s lawyers to postpone the prosecution’s appeal of the Umno president’s acquittal in his foreign visa system (VLN) corruption case.

Justice Hadhariah Syed Ismail, who chaired a three-member bench, said she spent a few days reading the notes of proceedings in the High Court just to better understand the case.

“It ran into more than 1,000 pages. I did not focus on other cases. Since the prosecution has no objection to the adjournment, I do not want to say anything more,” she said.

Hadhariah, who sat with Justices Azman Abdullah and SM Komathy Suppiah, said the bench was giving a longer adjournment for the prosecution to deal with Zahid’s representations.

The appeal hearing has now been fixed for Sept 9.

Earlier, Zahid’s lead counsel Hisyam Teh Poh Teik applied for the hearing scheduled today to be postponed as they had sent a second representation to the Attorney-General’s Chambers on Feb 7.

“It must be given fair and just consideration,” he said.

The first representation was sent in January last year. - FMT

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