During cross-examination, lawyer Hisyam Teh Poh Teik questioned Fairul Rafiq Hamirudin if the three charges had “collapsed”, after a previous witness and company director Azlan Shah Jaffril had testified that he paid a sum of RM2 million to Zahid in 2017 as a “political donation”, and not as a bribe.
Zahid, who is also Bagan Datuk MP, is facing 12 counts of criminal breach of trust (CBT), eight counts of corruption and 27 counts of money laundering, totalling RM117 million.
Azlan’s company, Profound Radiance Sdn Bhd was appointed by the home ministry, which was then under Zahid, to operate the One Stop Centre to process work permits for Pakistani and Nepali workers.
Deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Sazilee Abdul Khairi objected to the defence’s line of questioning.
“I’m just stating the defence’s case that the RM2 million charge is baseless,” Hisyam said.
To that, trial Judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah said the defence can proceed with the questioning.
Fairul then disagreed with the defence’s suggestion.
The witness also said MACC took Zahid’s statements between July and October 2018, during the course of their investigations into the corruption allegations.
Hisyam: Under the law, those witnesses that MACC interviewed, including Datuk Seri (Zahid), need to answer truthfully to all questions posed by the authorities?
Fairul: Yes.
Hisyam: Up to today, my client has not been charged with providing a false statement to MACC?
Fairul: Yes.
Meanwhile, another witness from MACC, Mohd Zamri Abdul Rashid testified that he was tasked with investigating Zahid for alleged corruption amounting to RM13.25 million in October 2018.
He said based on his investigations, witness Junaith Asharab Md Shariff passed the cheques, totalling RM13.25 million, to Zahid and his brother Mohammad Nasaee on different occasions.
“Junaith had asked Nasaee and the accused (Zahid) on who was to be the cheques’ recipient.
“The accused told Junaith the payments were meant for a law firm, Lewis and Co, which served as Zahid’s trustee,” Zamri added.
Co-counsel Hamidi Mohd Nor then raised an objection against Zamri’s evidence over an allegation he made against Zahid.
The witness claimed Zahid had promised to award a government project to Junaith after the 2018 general election during one of their meetings.
“The defence contends this is merely his (Zamri’s) opinion. Junaith has testified that my client did not make any promise on this government project,” the lawyer said.
At this juncture, deputy public prosecutor Gan Peng Kun told the court that the prosecution had declared Junaith a hostile witness after he had changed his testimony last year.
“The content of this promise of the government project was discovered during Zamri’s investigations. And we urge the court to leave it as it is for now.
“We can submit later at the close of the prosecution’s case,” he said.
Sequerah said he did not wish to indulge in the purported government project promise, adding that the court disallowed the content.
“Paragraph 55 in this witness’ statement remains as far as the meeting is concerned,” he added.
The hearing continues on Friday.