The Court of Appeal must consider whether the police report of a now deceased prosecution witness, that was not available at trial, will change the guilty verdict.
Peter Anthony is seeking to overturn his conviction and sentence to three years imprisonment and a RM50,000 fine by a lower court for falsifying a document under Section 468 of the Penal Code.
PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal has reserved its ruling on Melalap assemblyman Peter Anthony’s final appeal against conviction and sentence for forging a letter from the office of the University Malaysia Sabah (UMS) vice-chancellor for fraudulent purposes.
Justice Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim, who chaired a three-member bench, said the panel needed time to deliberate on the written and oral submissions presented by the parties.
Also hearing the appeal were Justices Zaini Mazlan and Azmi Ariffin.
The appeal has now been fixed for case management on Aug 16 to set the date for the decision to be delivered.
The outcome is important for the Parti Kesejahteraan Demokratik Masyarakat president as he would lose his Sabah state assembly seat unless he obtains a pardon from the Yang di-Pertuan Agong since the offence was committed in Putrajaya.
Article 17(1) of the Sabah constitution states that an elected or nominated assemblyman will be disqualified if he or she has been convicted of an offence by a court of law in any part of the federation.
The provision also states that the disqualification comes into effect if a jail term of a year or more is imposed and the fine is RM2,000 or higher.
In 2022, the sessions court sentenced Peter to three years in jail and fined him RM50,000 after convicting him of an offence under Section 468 of the Penal Code.
The decision was affirmed by the High Court last year.
Today, Peter’s lead counsel Nicholas Kow submitted that prosecution witness and businessman Shukur Din’s disclosure of a police report could have led to a different outcome in this case.
He said Shukur, who died recently, did not reveal this piece of information during the trial.
On Feb 7, the Court of Appeal allowed Peter to use the contents of the report as fresh evidence in his appeal.
Shukur claimed in the report that a Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officer had forced him to state that Peter had used UMS to deceive then-prime minister and finance minister Najib Razak.
That police report has now neutralised the evidence Shukur gave in court. The defence was denied the opportunity to cross-examine him on that matter and challenge his credibility, he said.
Kow said the prosecution’s case had collapsed as a result since Shukur was one of its key witnesses in the trial. He said Peter should be acquitted on the basis of the new evidence.
The burden of proof is always with the prosecution and I see this is troubling your Lordships, he said, adding that his client was denied a fair trial.
Deputy public prosecutor Wan Shaharuddin Wan Ladin submitted that Shukur’s police report would not have changed the evidential landscape of the prosecution.
He said Peter, then managing director of Syarikat Asli Jati Sdn Bhd, had used then UMS vice-chancellor Harun Abdullah and its then (UMS) registrar Shariff Abd Kadir Shariff Omang Abdullah Said to obtain a supporting letter to secure a RM25 million mechanical and electrical systems maintenance and operations contract.
He resorted to deception to get the project which was already awarded to REMT Utama Sdn Bhd by way of an open tender, he said.
However, he said then UMS chairman Zaki Azmi managed to thwart Peter’s devious move by alerting Najib and saving the government from a potential lawsuit.
Wan Shaharuddin, who was assisted by deputy public prosecutors Haresh Prakash Somiah and Nurul Atiqah Alias, said the prosecution had proved its case beyond doubt despite relying on strong circumstantial evidence.
He said the three prosecution witnesses, Shukur, Harun and Shariff, were not accomplices in the crime as they enjoyed immunity under Section 52 of the MACC Act.
Peter, 53 was convicted of forging a letter dated June 9, 2014 by inserting a false statement with the intention of using it for fraudulent purposes.
He committed the offence at the office of the late Azlin Alias, then principal private secretary to Najib at the Perdana Putra building in Putrajaya between June 13 and Aug 21, 2014. – FMT
