KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court has rejected Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi's application to halt the hearing of his corruption trial pending an appeal in the Court of Appeal (COA) regarding 11 witness statements which he is trying to obtain.
High Court Judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah ruled there were no special circumstances to grant Zahid's application.
He said Zahid will not be denied a fair trial even if the hearings proceed pending the Umno president's appeal.
Sequerah said the accused could always interview the witnesses without any hindrance from the prosecution.
Moreover, he said Zahid should not have any issues meeting the witnesses as most of them involved his own family members.
With that he ruled the cross examination of the accused and proceedings to continue as scheduled.
Earlier, lead prosecutor Datuk Raja Rozela Raja Toran urged the court to reject any attempt by Zahid to delay the proceedings and outcome of the trial.
She noted that Zahid was facing very serious charges and the trial was being closely watched by the public.
"This trial involves a former deputy prime minister of the country and he is facing very serious charges.
"This trial is of public and national importance and any attempt to impede the progress of the proceedings must be rejected," she said, while pointing out that the witness statements Zahid sought involved mostly his family members - including his brother, daughter and former secretary.
Raja Rozela also pointed out that the trial had taken three years and was not just at the defence stage after Zahid had been ordered to enter his defence against the charges.
She said this when submitting against Zahid's application to stop the ongoing proceedings pending the outcome of his appeal to obtain witness statements recorded by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).
Zahid had filed the stay application as he wanted the Court of Appeal to announce its decision first.
On May 9, the High Court had dismissed Zahid's application to gain access to the statements of 11 witnesses recorded by MACC.
Sequerah had dismissed his application on grounds of public policy and public interest.
However, Zahid's lead counsel Hisyam Teh Poh Teik today dismissed Raja Rozela's accusation of the defence trying to delay the trial.
He said such accusations had been hurled at the defence right from the onset of the trial eventhough such claims were not true.
Citing an incident last week, Teh said his client had returned to attend court even though he was given two days medical leave.
On the three years it has taken the trial, he said the defence could not be blamed for the shutdown imposed due to the Movement Control Order (MCO) during the Covid-19 outbreak.
Zahid is accused of 47 counts of money laundering and criminal breach of trust (CBT) involving millions of ringgit from charity foundation Yayasan Akalbudi and accepting bribes for various projects during his tenure as home minister.
12 of the charges are for CBT, eight for corruption and the remaining 27 for money laundering.
The trial will continue tomorrow.