Judicial commissioner Azhar Abdul Hamid ruled that the conviction of Stanley Thai, former head of Supermax Corporation Bhd, was unsafe.

“I am persuaded by the arguments put forward by both the accused’s counsel and find the conviction not safe.

“The five-year jail sentence is now set aside and the fine paid by the accused (RM5 million) is now refunded,” he said after hearing submissions from the prosecution and defence.

However, the judge did not elaborate on how the court came to find Thai innocent.

The court also freed former remisier Tiong Kiong Choon on two insider trading charges. Tiong had been accused of disposing 6,208,500 shares in Supermax’s subsidiary company, APL Industries Bhd, while in possession of non-public information.

Thai, who was accused of communicating the information to Tiong between Oct 26 and 29, 2007, told reporters he would issue a statement on his acquittal later.

The Sessions Court had in November 2017 sentenced Thai to five years in prison and fined him RM5 million after finding him guilty of insider trading under Section 188 of the Capital Markets and Services Act.

Tiong was jailed for five years and fined RM10 million.

Thai and Tiong were represented by lawyers Shamsul Sulaiman and Yusof Zainal Abiden, respectively, while deputy public prosecutor Mohd Hafiz Yusoff appeared for the prosecution.