KUALA LUMPUR: Former Felda Investment Corporation Sdn Bhd (FICSB) chief executive officer (CEO) Mohd Zaid Abdul Jalil denied having any personal interest in the purchase of Merdeka Palace Hotel & Suites.
He said this at the High Court today when cross-examined by counsel Datuk Salehuddin Saidin in the trial of former Federal Land Development Authority (Felda) chairman Tan Sri Mohd Isa Abdul Samad for criminal breach of trust (CBT) and corruption over the purchase of the Kuching-based hotel.
Zaid, 48, who was the 15th prosecution witness said the hotel purchase in 2014 was based on the FICSB board’s decision and he was just following orders.
The matter was raised after the counsel had shown the court a letter from Zaid to Merdeka Palace Hotel’s owner, Gegasan Abadi Properties Sdn Bhd, stating that FICSB had principally agreed to the purchase.
Salehuddin then suggested that the letter was a clear sign that the witness had a personal interest in the purchase of the hotel, to which the witness disagreed.
Salehuddin: Do you agree if I say in your letter to Gegasan Abadi, you were trying to mislead the developer by stating that FICSB board of directors had principally agreed to buy the hotel?
Zaid: I disagree.
Salehuddin: Do you agree if I say that you went beyond authority?
Zaid: I disagree.
Salehuddin: Do you agree if I say that the FICSB board of directors did not agree with the hotel purchase?
Zaid: I disagree.
Zaid also dismissed the accusation levelled against him by the counsel that he went to Kuching with Isa’s special officer, Muhammad Zahid Md Arip, in Nov 2013, for his own interest.
“The work visit was an order from Isa to do research on Merdeka Palace Hotel and from what I understood, I had to go to Kuching,” he said.
Trial continues before judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali tomorrow.
On Dec 14 last year, Isa pleaded not guilty to one count of CBT by approving the purchase of Merdeka Palace & Suites Hotel without approval from the Felda board of directors on April 29, 2014.
The former Umno vice-president also faces nine counts of receiving graft totalling more than RM3 million from Gegasan Abadi’s director Ikhwan Zaidel between July 2014 and December 2015