Deputy public prosecutor Afzainizam Abdul Aziz said there were “material errors” in trial judge Nazlan Mohd Ghazali’s notes of evidence.

“This needs to be corrected and clarified by both the appellant (Isa) and respondent (public prosecutor) before the appeal hearing can be fixed,” he told FMT after an online case management before senior assistant registrar Tan Chai Wei today.

Afzainizam said submissions and clarifications of the parties at the end of the prosecution’s case were also missing in the notes of evidence.

“The High Court has to come up with the amended notes of evidence which formed part of the appeal records,” he said.

Tan has fixed another case management for Sept 8.

Isa, represented by Sallehudin Saidin, had filed his petition of appeal, listing out where Nazlan had erred in facts and law, soon after a 400-page judgment was released last August.

Nazlan, now a Court of Appeal judge, had sentenced Isa to six years’ jail and fined him RM15.4 million on Feb 3, 2021 after finding him guilty on nine counts of corruption involving RM3.09 million in connection with Felda’s purchase of a hotel in Kuching in 2014.

He sentenced Isa to six years’ jail on each of the nine counts, the jail terms to run concurrently.

However, he granted a stay of execution against the prison sentence and fine pending Isa’s appeal to the Court of Appeal.

Isa, the Felda chairman from January 2011 to January 2017, was freed on bail of RM1.5 million.

He was initially slapped with one charge of criminal breach of trust (CBT) and nine counts of corruption over the purchase of the Merdeka Palace Hotel and Suites in Kuching.

At the close of the prosecution’s case, the court acquitted him on the CBT charge and ordered him to defend the bribery charges.

The prosecution has filed an appeal on the acquittal on the CBT charge.