Lawyer S Satharuban, a member of Tengku Adnan’s legal team, said the dates were fixed after case management before deputy registrar Darmafikri Abu Adam today.
“The appeal hearing has been fixed for April 22 and 23,” he said, adding that another case management would be held on March 5 to ensure all appeal records were in order.
Deputy public prosecutor Rullizah Abdul Majid appeared for the public prosecutor.
On Dec 21, trial Judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan sentenced the 70-year-old Putrajaya MP, who is better known as Ku Nan, to a year’s jail and fined him RM2 million for receiving the money from businessman Chai Kin Kong in 2016.
Tengku Adnan received the money from Chai, who was a director of Aset Kayamas, despite knowing that the businessman’s companies had dealings with the federal territories ministry which he helmed at the time.
The judge said after maximum evaluation of the prosecution’s evidence against the defence, it was found that Tengku Adnan was not entrusted to raise funds for two by-elections – in Kuala Kangsar and Sungai Besar – in 2016, as claimed by the defence.
Zaini said Tengku Adnan had no valid reason to raise funds for the two by-elections as these constituencies were not in his domain as the then Umno and Barisan Nasional federal territories chairman.
“He was furthermore not the treasurer (of Umno) as claimed,” he said, adding that he was also disinclined to accept the testimonies of two defence witnesses.
They were Rizalman Mokhtar, a former Sungai Besar by-election machinery director, and Zakaria Dullah, the then Simpang Renggam Umno division chief.
Zaini said that in his opinion, their testimonies were concocted after the event in an attempt to bolster the defence of the accused.
He said the RM2 million given by Chai remained with Tadmansori Holdings Sdn Bhd for the benefit of the accused. It was shown that Tengku Adnan was the majority shareholder of the company.
“It is, therefore, established that the accused used Tadmansori Holdings Sdn Bhd as a facade to receive the fruits of his crime,” he added.