Otman Arsahd is standing trial on 32 charges of corruption and another 64 for money laundering.

Seventeen of the corruption charges are in relation to submitting false claims, while the remainder relate to allegations of abuses of power.

Judge Kamarudin Kamsun apologised to both the prosecution and defence for not being able to deliver his decision on the case today.

Deputy public prosecutor Norzilati Izhani Zainal appeared for the prosecution, while Rafique Rashid Ali represented Otman.

Rafique later told reporters the court had initially fixed April 19 to deliver its decision, which was then postponed to today.

Otman was alleged to have submitted false claims to a National Sports Council (NSC) finance division director for payment of RM36.3 million to companies linked to him.

He was also accused of using his position as a secretary in the ministry’s finance division to instruct the NSC director-general to pay a sum of RM2.16 million to companies linked to his children for organising various ministry programmes.

In its submission, the defence claims Otman had no authority to instruct NSC to make payments to these companies.

It said the evidence presented during the trial also failed to show that Otman wilfully submitted the false claims.

The prosecution, however, told the court the defence was no more than a bare denial and failed to raise reasonable doubt.

A total of 70 witnesses testified for the prosecution while Otman was the sole defence witness.