The Malaysian Insight

UMNO secretary-general Ahmad Maslan has poked fun at the Attorney-General’s Chambers for its U-turn in retracting a letter to High Court Judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah asking him to prioritise Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s corruption trial.

Deputy public prosecutor Abdul Malik Ayob had asked the judge to prioritise Zahid’s trial ahead of jailed former prime minister Najib Razak, currently in his second 1MDB-related trial.

The request was later retracted, but not before Sequerah rebuked the AGC for trying to influence court procedure.

The Pontian MP, quoting a Malay proverb, said certain words cannot be retracted once they have been spoken (terlajak perahu boleh diundur, terlajak kata buruk padahnya).

Zahid is facing 12 counts of criminal breach of trust involving RM31 million of funds belonging to his charity Yayasan Akalbudi.

He faces eight further corruption charges involving RM21.25 million, and 27 money laundering charges involving RM65 million.

If convicted, Zahid could be jailed for up to 20 years.

His trial is currently ongoing at the Kuala Lumpur High Court.

In another short pantun (poem), Ahmad also slammed the judiciary over the leak of the alleged judgments for Najib and his wife Rosmah Mansor’s separate corruption trials.

A copy of the alleged judgment delivering a guilty verdict for Rosmah was published by Malaysia Today, run by blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin.

Early last week, there was another leak – the Federal Court ruling in Najib’s SRC International appeal – ahead of the decision by the apex court last Wednesday.

Kuala Lumpur High Court is expected to deliver its decision on Rosmah’s corruption trial on Thursday. – August 30, 2022.