Judge Rozina Ayob freed Azhar Che Mat Dali, Mohamad’s former political secretary, last Friday.

The case was still at the prosecution stage then.

Azhar’s lawyer, Haijan Omar, confirmed the matter when contacted by Utusan Malaysia, but declined to disclose further details.

However, FMT understands that the prosecution decided to withdraw its case against Azhar. His acquittal means that he cannot be charged with the same offence.

Azhar was Mohamad’s political secretary when he was the defence minister under the Pakatan Harapan government from 2018 to 2020.

On Oct 15, 2020, he was slapped with five counts of soliciting RM5 million and receiving RM1.35 million in kickbacks in 2019 from a company director over a defence ministry project.

He was charged with two more counts of accepting bribes totalling RM130,000 from the same contractor firm, FEHM Entity Sdn Bhd, a week later.

The alleged kickbacks were allegedly meant for Azhar to assist FEHM Entity in becoming the strategic partner and contractor for a project involving the maintenance of intelligence devices.