Prosecution appeals against Bung Moktar and wife's acquittal

The prosecution has filed an appeal against a High Court decision acquitting and discharging Kinabatangan MP Bung Moktar Radin and his wife Zizie Izette Abdul Samad of corruption charges amounting to RM2.8 million involving a RM150 million investment in Public Mutual Berhad unit trust.

Zizie Izette's lawyer, Teh See Khoon, confirmed when contacted that a notice of appeal was filed by the prosecution on Sept 15.

"Yes, we were informed that the prosecution filed the notice of appeal on Friday (Sept 15)," he said.

On Sept 7, judge Azhar Abdul Hamid acquitted and discharged the couple after allowing their applications for a revision against the Sessions Court's decision to order them to enter their defence on the corruption charges.

Judge Azhar ruled that it was a fit and proper case to exercise revisionary power under Section 323 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

The Sessions Court, on Sept 2 last year, ordered Bung Mokhtar and Zizie Izette to enter their defence on all three corruption charges. This prompted them to file revision applications in the High Court against the Sessions Court's ruling.

However, the High Court struck out their applications without hearing the merits of the applications after allowing the prosecution preliminary objections against the applications.

The couple subsequently filed the appeal with the Court of Appeal, and on July 7, 2023, they won the appeal. The court remitted the revision applications back to the High Court for the merits of the applications to be heard.

On May 3, 2019, Bung Moktar, who was then the non-executive chairman of Felcra, was charged with two charges of accepting bribes of RM2.2 million and RM262,500 as an inducement to obtain Felcra approval to invest RM150 million in Public Mutual Berhad unit trusts.

He is alleged to have accepted the bribes from Public Mutual Berhad's investment agent Madhi Abdul Hamid through Zizie Izette at the Public Bank Taman Melawati Branch in Kuala Lumpur between 12.30pm and 5pm on June 12, 2015.

Bung Moktar was also charged with receiving RM337,500 in cash from Unit Amanah consultant Norhaili Ahmad Mokhtar under the name of Zizie Izette for the same reason and place on June 19, 2015, while Zizie Izette is facing three charges of abetting her husband over the matter at the same place, date, and time.