His lawyer, Teh See Khoon, said judge Rozina Ayob allowed the release of the Sabah deputy chief minister’s passport from Nov 10 to 22.

“The application to obtain the passport was made as our client has official business in Saudi Arabia,” Teh told reporters today.

He said the prosecution did not object to the application and that Bung’s corruption trial would resume on Nov 26.

Bung, 62, had pleaded not guilty on May 3, 2019 to two charges of accepting bribes amounting to RM2.2 million and RM262,500 respectively, as an inducement to obtain Felcra’s approval to invest RM150 million in Public Mutual unit trusts.

Bung, who was the non-executive chairman of Felcra at the time, was accused of accepting the bribes from Public Mutual investment agent Madhi Abdul Hamid, 38, through his (Bung’s) wife, Zizie Izette A Samad, at Public Bank’s Taman Melawati branch here between 12.30pm and 5pm on June 12, 2015.

He also pleaded not guilty to accepting a bribe of RM335,500 for himself from another Public Mutual investment agent, Norlaili Ahmad Mokhtar, 42, under the name of Zizie Izette, for the same purpose and at the same place on June 19, 2015.

Zizie Izette pleaded not guilty to three charges of abetting her husband.