Court reserves judgment on Ku Nan’s appeal in bribery case

The appeal hearing of former federal territories minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor against his conviction and sentence for accepting a bribe of RM2 million from a businessman ended at the Court of Appeal in Putrajaya today.

The court initially fixed three days beginning today to hear Tengku Adnan’s appeal. However, the proceedings began at 9.55am and ended at 12.52pm after counsel Tan Hock Chuan, representing Tengku Adnan, and deputy public prosecutor Asmah Musa finished their submissions.

The court however reserved its decision for a date yet to be fixed.

A three-member bench led by Court of Appeal judge Suraya Othman said the court would take time to consider the matter and would inform the parties once it was ready with the decision date.

“We thank the parties for their submissions. After deliberating, we decided we need some time to do a bit of research before we make our decision,” she said.

The other two judges on the bench were Abu Bakar Jais and Ahmad Nasfy Yasin.

The Kuala Lumpur High Court on Dec 21 last year sentenced Tengku Adnan to 12 months’ jail and fined him RM2 million after finding him guilty of the charge against him.

It allowed the Putrajaya MP’s application for a stay of execution for the jail sentence and fine pending his appeal.

Tengku Adnan was charged in his capacity as a public servant, namely federal territories minister, with having received for himself a total of RM2 million from businessman Chai Kin Kong, who is Aset Kayamas Sdn Bhd (AKSB) director, via a Hong Leong Islamic Bank cheque belonging to the company which was deposited into a CIMB account owned by Tadmansori Holdings Sdn Bhd (THSB), which Tengku Adnan had an interest in and was known to AKSB as being related to his official duties.

He was accused of committing the offence at the Pusat Bandar Damansara branch of CIMB Bank on June 14, 2016, under Section 165 of the Penal Code which provides for imprisonment of up to two years, a fine or both.

Earlier, Tan submitted that the prosecution’s star witness, Chai, had testified in examination-in-chief that he would issue a cheque as a political donation to Umno for the Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar by-elections.

“In his witness statement, Chai (the 19th prosecution witness) testified that the RM2 million was his contribution to Tengku Adnan after the latter said he needed a political fund of between RM5 million and RM6 million for two by-elections.

“Chai also confirmed that the sum of RM2 million was a political donation to Umno and not for the appellant (Tengku Adnan),” he said, adding that the charge was not proven beyond reasonable doubt and that the appellant should have been acquitted and discharged.

Tan also submitted that there was a serious error by the trial judge Mohamad Zaini Mazlan when he imported his personal knowledge that the Umno receipt was “crisp and new” when there was no evidence to that effect.

Meanwhile, Asmah argued that Tengku Adnan obtained the RM2 million for himself, saying it was not a political contribution as there was an absence of orderly records based on the receipt acquired on fund contributions to Umno.

She also argued that the statement that the money was a political donation was only raised during the cross-examination of the sixth prosecution witness, Tadmansori chief operating officer Mohd Hasbi Jaafar, and was never mentioned to the investigating officer during the investigation.

“The prosecution argued that Chai was only informed of the purpose of the fund by the accused but did not know whether it was really used as political fund. Therefore, it was not necessary to question the witness again on the issue of political contribution,” she said.