Justice Ahmad Bache said the trial judge did not commit any error, either in law or in fact, when finding the Melalap assemblyman guilty of the charge last May.

Peter’s lawyer S Devanandan will now make a submission to mitigate the sentence.

Peter, who is the Parti Kesejahteraan Demokratik Masyarakat (KDM) president, has the right to appeal his conviction to the Court of Appeal.

Peter, 52, who was at the time the managing director of Syarikat Asli Jati, was convicted by the Kuala Lumpur sessions court of forging a letter from the office of the Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) vice-chancellor, dated June 9, 2014, by inserting a false statement with the intention of using it for fraudulent purposes.

Trial judge Azura Alwi found that Peter had committed the offence at the office of the principal private secretary to then prime minister Najib Razak at the Perdana Putra building in Putrajaya between June 13 and Aug 21, 2014.

Azura sentenced Peter to three years’ jail and fined him RM50,000, which he paid.

Peter was granted a stay of his prison sentence pending the outcome of today’s appeal.

Ahmad also dismissed Peter’s appeal against the sentence. “The sessions court has considered mitigating and aggravating factors in imposing the jail term and fine,” the judge said.

He also said the trial judge had taken into account public interest and that Peter had been a state minister in the Warisan-led Sabah government.

However, Ahmad allowed Peter a stay of conviction and sentence pending his final appeal.

In his oral grounds, Ahmad said the defence had failed to create a reasonable doubt in the prosecution’s case.

“The trial judge was correct in her findings that the defence was a bare denial and an afterthought,” he said.

Ahmad said Peter’s failure to forward his defence at the prosecution stage of the case was a “disastrous” error on his part.

The judge said the prosecution’s case relied on three key witnesses, all of whom were found to be credible in their testimony.

“They were not accomplices in the crime,” he added.

Ahmad said the accused deceived all three witnesses in his attempt to secure a RM25 million system maintenance project which had already been awarded to REMT Utama Sdn Bhd by way of an open tender.

“His acts clearly showed his intention to commit the crime,” the judge ruled, adding that all the ingredients of forgery with the intention to cheat were sufficiently proved by the prosecution.

The charge against Peter was framed under Section 468 of the Penal Code, which involves forging a document for the purpose of cheating and provides for imprisonment of up to seven years and a fine upon conviction.

Defence counsel Devanandan was assisted by D Khavenesh, while deputy public prosecutors Wan Shaharuddin Wan Ladin and Haresh Prakash Somiah appeared for the prosecution.

We are live on Telegram, subscribe here for breaking news and the latest announcements.