Bung Moktar, wife fail in bid to review court order

The High Court here has rejected the applications by Kinabatangan MP Bung Moktar Radin and his wife, Zizie Izette, to review a lower court ruling ordering them to enter their defence on charges of corruption and abetment.

(FMT) – Judicial commissioner Azhar Abdul Hamid said the court agreed with the prosecution’s preliminary objection against the review bid.

The prosecution, represented by deputy public prosecutor Law Chin How, objected to the couple’s review bid on grounds of technicality.

The prosecution had said that the requests by Bung and Zizie for a review of the sessions court order ought to have been made by letter to the High Court, and not through a notice of motion.

Bung, a Sabah deputy chief minister, was charged with two counts of receiving bribes amounting to RM2.2 million and RM262,500 as gratification when he was the Felcra chairman.

He is alleged to have done so to obtain Felcra’s approval to make a RM150 million Public Mutual unit investment in June 2015.

Zizie faces three charges of abetting him in the matter.

The couple had filed a motion seeking a review by the High Court of the sessions court’s order directing them to enter their defence.

They claimed that the trial judge had erred in law and fact when ruling that the prosecution had proved that they had received bribes from two investment agents, Madhi Abdul Hamid and Norhaili Ahmad Mokhtar, who were key prosecution witnesses in the case.

The defence trial is set to resume in the sessions court on Jan 3.

Bung and Zizie were represented by lawyers M Athimulan and K Kumaraendran.