Judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah made the decision after finding paragraphs 26, 27, 29, 33, 34, 35, 36 and 37 in Fairul Rafiq’s witness statement to be prejudicial against Zahid. Fairul is one of the prosecution witnesses in the trial.

“The court also agreed that anything that is in the form of opinion and conclusion in the statement given by the investigating officer should be removed in its entirety.

“This ruling also applies to all witness statements of other investigating officers,” he said after hearing submissions by both parties.

Earlier, lawyer Hisyam Teh Poh Teik, representing the Umno president, submitted that the written testimony by the MACC investigating officer directly stated that Zahid had “accepted or committed corruption” when it is the court that could determine whether an offence had been committed.

“In paragraph 37, Fairul’s testimony stated that ‘therefore, I hereby state that the accused, as the home minister who approved the appointment of Profound Radiance (Sdn Bhd) as Operator of OSC Nepal and Pakistan, had received bribes from Azlan Shah’.

“So this evidence needs to be removed from the witness statement. Even Azlan Shah Jafril (38th prosecution witness) in his testimony stated that there was no element of corruption in his gift as ‘charity’ was clearly written on his cheque butt.

“This evidence is categorised as ‘opinion’ because there is no evidence before this court regarding this gift as corruption … such evidence is inadmissible,” Hisyam added.

Deputy public prosecutor Gan Peng Kun, in his submission, said that the witness statement by Fairul was not opinionated, but based on investigation and evidence.

“The investigating officer has the right to submit evidence and it is up to the court to decide the reliability of the investigation,” he added.

Deputy public prosecutor Raja Rozela Raja Toran said the evidence presented by the investigating officer could not be taken as an opinion because it was based on evidence gathered during the investigation.

“He is trying to connect the dots as a result of his investigation. He comes to court and informs the court on the evidence he found and it is for the court to assess. But this does not make it (the statement) inadmissible,” she added.

Zahid, 67, is facing 47 charges, with 12 of them involving criminal breach of trust (CBT), eight for corruption and 27 for money laundering involving tens of millions of ringgit in funds belonging to Yayasan Akalbudi.