A source told FMT that under the court rules, the petition must be filed within 10 days in the Federal Court after receiving the appeal records which, among others, consist of grounds of judgment and notes of proceedings.
“The failure to do so means the appeal may have lapsed and the decision by the Court of Appeal remains, that is, unless the prosecution had applied for an extension of time,” lawyer A Srimurugan explained.
FMT has attempted to reach Attorney-General Idrus Harun for a response.
On Oct 29, the Court of Appeal’s majority judgment by Suraya Othman and Ahmad Nafsy Yasin was released to allow the appeal of Tengku Adnan, better known as Ku Nan, and set aside a High Court verdict to find him guilty.
The minority judgment by Abu Bakar Jais to uphold Ku Nan’s conviction was also released on the same day.
A case management was held before a Federal Court registrar last week but it is unclear what transpired.
The Court of Appeal allowed Kun Nan’s appeal on July 16 after hearing submissions from parties on April 22.
The majority judgment said the RM2 million given to Ku Nan by a businessman was proven by the defence to be a political donation for two by-elections.
Ahmad (Nasfy Yasin), who spoke for the majority, said the prosecution could not prove that Ku Nan received the money for himself from Aset Kayamas Sdn Bhd (AKSB) director Chai Kin Kong.
However, Abu Bakar said trial judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan made a correct finding that the former federal territories minister pocketed RM2 million as there is no evidence that he or his company had subsequently channelled the money received from Chai as political donation to Umno.
Abu Bakar said it was also untrue for Ku Nan to claim the money was given as a political donation and not for him personally.
The judge said this was because it was never proven there was any record that Umno was given the money.
The Putrajaya MP is said to have received the money via a Hong Leong Islamic Bank cheque belonging to the company (AKSB) which was deposited into a CIMB account owned by Tadmansori Holdings Sdn Bhd which Tengku Adnan has an interest in.
He was accused of committing the offence at CIMB Bank Berhad’s Pusat Bandar Damansara branch on June 14, 2016, under Section 165 of the Penal Code which provides an imprisonment of up to two years or a fine or both.