A three-member bench chaired by Justice Hadhariah Syed Ismail said the hearing date, fixed in November last year, will be maintained.

This comes after the prosecution said the Attorney-General had yet to decide on representations made by the deputy prime minister for the appeal to be withdrawn.

“We will abide by the earlier decision (for the hearing of the appeal to proceed) and will file our submissions,” said deputy public prosecutor Abdul Malik Ayob, who was assisted by Zander Lim.

Sitting with Hadhariah were Justices Azman Abdullah and SM Komathy Suppiah.

Zahid was not in court as his presence was dispensed with.

Lawyers Hisyam Teh Poh Teik, Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim, Hamidi Noh and Aiman Abdul Rahman appeared for Zahid.

Zahid had put in his representations in January last year, resulting in the Court of Appeal granting the prosecution five adjournments to allow the AG to decide on whether to proceed with the appeal.

On Sept 23, 2022, Justice Yazid Mustafa, then a High Court judge, acquitted Zahid of all 40 charges after ruling that the prosecution had failed to establish a prima facie case against him.

The prosecution filed its appeal against the acquittal on Sept 26.

On Dec 29, the prosecution filed its petition of appeal, citing 15 grounds for challenging the High Court’s decision.

The prosecution claimed that Yazid had misdirected himself by comparing the facts in Zahid’s case to those in Rosmah Mansor’s corruption trial. They said a similar fact scenario alone did not make the case a binding precedent.

The prosecution also said Yazid was wrong in his assessment of the credibility of the prosecution’s three key witnesses – former Ultra Kirana Sdn Bhd (UKSB) directors Harry Lee, Wan Quoris Shah Wan Abdul Ghani and David Tan.

It also said the judge had failed to take into consideration the testimony of a witness that a ledger presented as evidence in court was a “contemporaneous document”.

The prosecution team further contended that Yazid erred when deciding that the source of the money used by UKSB to pay Zahid needed to be explained and proven, saying that the law contained no such stipulation.

Zahid was charged with 33 counts of receiving bribes amounting to S$13.56 million (RM42 million) from UKSB between 2014 and 2018 while he was home minister and deputy prime minister under the previous Barisan Nasional (BN) administration.

He was also charged with seven other counts of obtaining for himself the sums of S$1.15 million, RM3 million, 15,000 Swiss francs and US$15,000 from the same company in connection with his official duties.

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