This comes after Peter’s lawyer, S Devanandan, said a precedent had been set in Najib Razak’s SRC International corruption trial, in which the former prime minister obtained a stay of sentence and conviction after the High Court found him guilty in July 2020.
“The Court of Appeal affirmed the order (for stay of sentence and conviction) after dismissing his appeal,” he said in his submission.
He said it was in Najib’s matter that such an order was made and there were no similar cases as reported in Malaysian law journals.
Najib, who was convicted on seven charges of power abuse, criminal breach of trust and money laundering involving RM42 million belonging to SRC International, has appealed to the Federal Court.
The Court of Appeal also upheld his 12-year jail sentence and RM210 million fine, which was also not paid.
Today, deputy public prosecutor Wan Shaharuddin Wan Ladin submitted that Najib had obtained the stay of sentence and conviction “at one go” in the High Court, which was maintained by the Court of Appeal.
“This application could have been entertained if Peter did not pay the fine. It will now open the floodgates when an applicant makes another application,” he said.
However, Devanandan said the prosecution’s argument that Peter was not entitled to stay his conviction because he had partially fulfilled his sentence, was flawed.
He said his client could file for a stay of conviction after the sessions court suspended the sentence as the Criminal Procedure Code allowed it.
“There is no opening of floodgates and abuse of processes as Najib’s case is a precedent,” he said.
On May 26, sessions judge Azura Alwi sentenced Peter to three years’ jail after finding him guilty of falsifying a letter from the office of Universiti Malaysia Sabah’s (UMS) deputy vice-chancellor for system maintenance contract work.
Azura also fined him RM50,000, in default 15 months’ jail. He paid the fine.
Peter, the Melalap assemblyman, only applied for a stay of sentence at the time. However, on June 3, he filed an application to stay the conviction as he feared being disqualified as a candidate should he decide to stand in GE15, which must be held by September next year.
The federal and state constitutions state that an MP or assemblyman is disqualified if convicted of an offence and sentenced to a jail term of more than one year and fined more than RM2,000, and if they have not received a “free pardon”.
DPP Haresh Prakash Somiah, who is assisting Wan Shaharuddin, submitted that Azura should stop hearing the application as the final order had been made on May 26.
“Your judicial function in this case has ceased and the applicant (Peter) should have gone to the High Court,” he said.
Azura will deliver her ruling on Aug 1.