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Isa Samad freed of graft over Kuching hotel purchase

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Justice Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera said there was an appealable error that warrants intervention.

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Free Malaysia Today
In 2021, the High Court in Kuala Lumpur found Isa Samad guilty of corruption and sentenced him to six years in prison and a fine of RM15.4 million.

PUTRAJAYA:
The Court of Appeal has unanimously allowed former Felda chairman Isa Samad’s appeal against his conviction and sentence for allegedly receiving about RM3 million in kickbacks for approving the purchase of a hotel in Kuching 10 years ago.

Justice Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera, who led a three-member bench, said the High Court had committed an appealable error that warranted intervention.

As such, he said the appeal was allowed and the conviction and sentence quashed.

Other judges who heard Isa’s appeal were Justices Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim and SM Komathy Suppiah.

In 2021, Justice Nazlan Ghazali, now in the Court of Appeal, found Isa guilty of nine corruption charges involving RM3.09 million. Isa was sentenced to six years in prison and fined RM15.4 million.

Vazeer said the prosecutors had presented two different narratives of their case.

He said the charges and the prosecution’s opening statement had claimed that the gratification was a reward to Isa for helping secure approval for the purchase of the hotel from Merdeka Palace Hotel & Suites.

“However, in the course of the trial, the narrative was changed to ‘inducement’ so that the appellant (Isa) would not interfere with the contract for the hotel purchase,” he said.

Vazeer said the question then arose as to which element of Section 16(a)(A) was relied on by the trial judge when deciding whether a prima facie case had been established.

“Is it one of ‘reward’ or is it one of ‘inducement’?” he asked, adding that the prosecution could not change horses midstream.

He said it was trite law that Isa must have sufficient notice of the case against him, as he would otherwise be seriously prejudiced in his defence.

“Two conflicting versions of the prosecution’s case were adduced about the exact purpose of the gratification. The arising ambiguity must be resolved in favour of the appellant,” he said.

Vazeer said the trial judge had also misdirected himself when ruling that a prima facie case had been established based on the evidence of businessman Ikhwan Zaidel, a former director of the hotel.

Vazeer said the judge erred in holding that Ikhwan had given the gratification due to his apprehension and fear that Isa, as chairman, had influence on the contract’s completion.

Likewise, the prosecution’s case was that Isa had instructed his special officer Zahid Arip to collect money from Ikhwan, but Vazeer said Ikhwan told the court that Isa had never directly requested any gratification.

“In fact, Isa told Ikhwan that he could only bring the matter to the Felda Investment Corp Sdn Bhd board to approve the purchase,” he said.

Vazeer added that Zahid was not a credible prosecution witness due to material contradictions in his testimony.

“The trial judge’s finding that there was a demand for payment by Isa through Zahid, and that Ikhwan made nine payments, was not borne out by credible evidence,” he said.

He said the evidence only showed that Ikhwan had made the payments to Zahid. However, there was no proof that Isa received the money.

“Thus we find that overall, the conviction on all nine charges is not safe,” he said.

Lawyers Salehuddin Saidin, Siti Sarah Khalil, Hafizuddin Salehuddin and Afifuddin Ahmad represented Isa.

Deputy public prosecutor Afzainizam Abdul Aziz told reporters he would take instruction from his superiors about whether to appeal the decision to the Federal Court.

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