KUALA LUMPUR: Umno lawyer Datuk Mohd Hafarizam Harun was today temporarily freed from money laundering offences he faced – only to be charged again at the lower court.
This after High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali granted a discharge not amounting to an acquittal over Hafarizam's RM15 million money laundering cases.
However, Hafarizam, who is also an Umno disciplinary board member, was charged again with three counts of the same offence at the Sessions Court, 45 minutes after the earlier High Court proceedings ended.
During the proceedings before Nazlan, deputy public prosecutor Datuk Ishak Mohd Yusoff proposed not to proceed on two charges against Hafarizam before the High Court and sought an order of discharge not amounting to an acquittal.
"The prosecution intends to split up the two transactions in the current first charge against the accused for money-laundering into two new charges.
"This is due to the different dates of the two transactions between April and Nov 2014.
"The version of the money-laundering laws in effect on those two dates is different.
"Thus, we propose for all charges to be discharged not amounting to acquittal and we (the prosecution) will charge him again at the Sessions Court," he said.
Meanwhile, Hafarizam's lead counsel, Datuk Hasnal Rezua Merican, then told the court that they would like to withdraw their application to recuse Mohd Nazlan from hearing the case.
"We will file the recusal application again if my client's case is transferred to this court again," he said.
Mohd Nazlan then allowed the application to enable the prosecution to file afresh charges against Hafarizam at the lower court.
"The application for my recusal is therefore recorded as being withdrawn by the defence," he said.
On Feb 21, last year, Hafarizam was charged with depositing a total of RM15 million in cheques from former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak into his law firm's bank account between April and Nov 2014.
The Umno legal advisor known for handling Najib's civil cases pleaded not guilty to the charges. He was released on RM500,000 bail.
The 48-year-old lawyer also claimed trial to his three fresh money laundering charges at the Sessions Court before judge Azman Ahmad.
According to the charge sheets, the accused had been directly involved in money laundering and received RM7.5 million in illegal proceeds from Najib on April 16, 2014, which was deposited into his law firm Hafarizam Wan & Aisha Mubarak's client account.
For the second and third charges, he was accused of receiving RM4 million and RM3.5 million in illegal proceeds respectively from Najib between Nov 7 and Jan 21, 2015, which was also deposited into his law firm.
The offences were allegedly committed at the PWTC branch of CIMB Bank at Suite 1, Level 5, Menara Dato Onn, Jalan Tun Ismail, here.
For the first offence, he was charged under Section 4(1)(a) of the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001 which carries a maximum five years in jail, or a fine of not less than five times the amount of the proceeds from the unlawful activities, or both.
The second and third charges were under Section 4(1) of the same Act which carries a maximum 15 years' imprisonment and a fine of not less than five times the amount of the proceeds, upon conviction.
Hasnal Rezua, when pleading for minimum bail, said his client is now the sole proprietor of a legal firm he set up four months ago after leaving the previous law firm.
"He needs money for the operating cost for his new firm which was also affected by the previous Movement Control Order (MCO) due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
"My client had posted RM500,000 for his previous bail and I am purposing this court to impose RM200,000 and the balance be returned to him," he said.
The court then set RM200,000 bail in one surety against the accused and it would be taken from his previous RM500,000 bail.
The case was fixed for mention on Sept 9.