A three-man bench chaired by Justice Mohtarudin Baki said there was no merit in the prosecution’s appeal.
“There is no appealable error that warrants appellate court intervention,” he said of the unanimous decision.
Besides Mohtarudin, the other judges on the bench were Hamid Sultan Abu Backer and Yaacob Md Sam.
Lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah represented Wasli while government lawyer Awang Armadajaya Awang Mahmud appeared for the prosecution.
Awang Armadajaya later told reporters that they would consider filing an appeal in the Federal Court.
On Feb 10, 2006, Wasli, who is also the former managing director of Sawit Kinabalu Bhd, claimed trial to two charges of graft at the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court.
He was accused of offering a RM500,000 bribe to SLDB director John Liaw Chee Shing as an inducement for him to support the approval of the purchase of SLDB’s shares in Sapi Plantations Sdn Bhd by his trading company Syarikat Briskmark Enterprise Sdn Bhd during its board meeting.
Wasli allegedly committed the offence at Hotel Fairlane in Jalan Walter Grenier in Kuala Lumpur on Oct 22, 1996.
He was also charged with offering a RM500,000 bribe to SLDB director Michael Emban as an inducement for him to agree at its board meeting to a proposal for the sale of SLDB’s shares in Sapi Plantations to Briskmark Enterprise.
He was said to have committed the offence at the same hotel on Oct 22, 1996.
On June 7, 2016, the High Court in Kuala Lumpur acquitted him of the two charges without his defence being called.