Sessions court judge Rosli Ahmad, who took over conduct of the case from Rozina Ayob, allotted seven days in April and May next year to hear the duo’s defence to charges of corruption and abetment involving a RM150 million Felcra investment.
The trial is set to continue from April 9 to 11 and 14 to 15, and May 5 to 6.
Rosli also ordered the couple to place RM100,000 bail with one surety each and impounded their passports pending the disposal of the trial.
Deputy public prosecutors Law Chin How, Fadly Zambry, and Maziah Mohaide appeared for the prosecution.
Lawyers Ashok Athimulan and Ridha Abdah Subri appeared for Bung, while K Kumaraendran acted for Zizie.
Kumaraendran said the couple intended to testify in their defence from the witness box. However, he said no decision had been made as to whether they would provide witness statements as their examination-in-chief.
“We want to go through the Court of Appeal judgment which we have yet to obtain before making a decision,” he said.
The prosecution and the defence returned to the trial court today after the Court of Appeal on Nov 18 reversed Bung and Zizie’s acquittal by the High Court.
Justice Zaini Mazlan, who read the appellate court’s broad grounds of decision, said the revision application filed by the couple in the High Court was akin to an appeal.
“It is an interlocutory application masked as an appeal,” said Zaini, adding that it amounted to a disruption of the trial process.
Also on the panel hearing the appeal were Justices Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim and Noorin Badaruddin.
Bung, then non-executive chairman of Felcra, was charged on May 3, 2019 with two counts of receiving bribes of RM2.2 million and RM262,500 as an inducement to obtain Felcra’s approval to invest RM150 million in Public Mutual unit trusts.
He is alleged to have accepted the bribes from Public Mutual’s investment agent Norhaili Madhi through Zizie at the Taman Melawati Public Bank branch between 12.30pm and 5pm on June 12, 2015.
He was also charged with receiving a bribe of RM337,500 from Norhaili under Zizie’s name at the same location on June 19, 2015.
Zizie faces three charges of abetting Bung in the commission of the alleged offences.
On Sept 2, 2022, the sessions court judge ordered the couple to enter their defence as the prosecution had established a prima facie case against them.
On Sept 7 last year, the High Court, hearing a revision application brought under Section 323 of the Criminal Procedure Code, acquitted the duo. However, that decision was set aside on appeal.