KUALA LUMPUR: Former Umno Supreme Council member Datuk Lokman Noor Adam was sentenced to a month in jail after he was found guilty of contempt of court.
He was convicted of intimidating a witness in the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) trial.
High Court judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah ordered Lokman to serve the jail sentence beginning today.
However, he later granted a stay after Lokman's lawyer pleaded that his client would be filing an immediate appeal at the Court of Appeal.
Counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah said it would be pointless if his client's appeal was only heard after he had served the jail term in the event a stay was not granted.
Earlier, when pleading for a lighter sentence he said Lokman was a first time offender.
He also pointed out that no physical contact had occurred in the case.
"The witness also never complained that he was being threatened… he never ran to the prosecution saying that 'I feel threatened'," he said.
However, Deputy Public Prosecutor Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram contended that the respondent had shown no remorse.
"The court had imposed imprisonment in a range of four to six months in all previous contempt of court cases.
"Your decision will be an umbrella for witnesses who have yet to come. Sentence of imprisonment must be imposed," he said.
Collin then adjourned the proceedings for about 30 minutes before handing down the sentence against Lokman.
Deputy public prosecutor Mohamad Mustafa P. Kunyalam later objected to the stay application.
However, he said in the event it was allowed the court should impose RM5,000 bail.
Collin later set RM3,000 bail before allowing the stay application.
The committal proceeding was instituted against Lokman by former Attorney General Tan Sri Tommy Thomas.
It was done after Lokman was accused of threatening one of the key witnesses in the trial of former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak involving the misappropriation of RM2.28 billion of 1MDB funds.
In the application to initiate the committal proceedings, Tommy alleged that Lokman had been in contempt of court which was perpetrated on two occasions on Sept 25, 2019.
The former AG had sought an order that Lokman be committed to prison or fined for contempt.
Lokman had in a video interview uttered words implying a threat against Datuk Amhari Efendi Nazaruddin for having given evidence against Najib in the trial.
Amhari was the former special officer to Najib.