PUTRAJAYA (Sept 1): As Datuk Seri Ahmad Terrirudin Mohd Salleh takes up the position of Malaysia's Attorney General next Wednesday, he and his Chambers will be faced with tough decisions on on-going cases involving former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and current Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, among others.
These cases include the petition of appeal by the prosecution over the acquittal of Datuk Seri Najib Razak and Arul Kanda in the 1Malaysia Development Bhd audit tampering case, for which the deadline had lapsed in early July.
Ahmad Teriruddin will have to decide whether to seek for more time to file the petition before the Court of Appeal on Sept 12, or to withdraw its appeal completely.
In addition, Arul Kanda, who has been given a certificate of indemnity, has filed a representation letter in July for the prosecution to consider dropping its appeal.
Najib has also filed representations for his second SRC International Sdn Bhd case, in which he has been slapped with three money laundering charges involving RM27 million worth of funds from the company, and for another graft case in which he is facing, together with former Treasury secretary general Tan Sri Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah, six criminal breach of trust charges in relation to RM6.6 billion worth of government funds involving payments to the International Petroleum Investment corp.
A letter of representation, in law, is a way for an accused to seek prosecutors to review the criminal case to either drop the charge(s) against him/her, or to reduce the charge(s).
Meanwhile, there have been allegations that a deputy public prosecutor's recommendation to the AG — that the charges faced by Najib in the IPIC case be dropped — has been leaked. The chambers is now investigating the allegations.
Najib is already serving 12 years jail since Aug 23 last year after exhausting all his appeals with regards to his first SRC International case, in which he was found guilty of seven graft charges — three each of criminal breach of trust and money laundering involving RM42 million worth of SRC funds, together with one abuse of power charge — for which he was also fined RM210 million.
Not to be outdone, his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor has also sent representations with regards to her RM7.1 million graft case involving 17 money laundering and tax evasion charges. Trial for this case started last month.
She has already been found guilty of three counts of graft in relation to the solar hybrid project for 369 rural schools in Sarawak, for which she was sentenced to 10 years in jail and a total fine of RM920 million. She is appealing the case.
Besides this, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has filed representations with regards to the prosecution's appeal in the acquittal he was granted by the Shah Alam High Court to the 40 graft charges brought against him in connection with the foreign visa system.
The Umno president, who took over the post from Najib in 2018, has also filed representations to get the prosecution to drop the 47 charges he is facing in an on-going CBT, money laundering and graft case involving Yayasan Akal Budi's funds. The case, in which he has already been called to enter his defence, is scheduled to continue on Monday at the High Court here before COA judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah.
Besides the cases above, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said has said the government is looking at separating the powers of the Attorney General, who is presently also the Public Prosecutor in criminal cases.
There are also various important and high-profile civil cases that have to be looked at by the Chambers, like the one case that businessman Tan Sri Abdul Halim Saad brought against the government, former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and former minister Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop. There are also several cases related to 3R (royalty, racial, and religious) issues.
It would be interesting to see how Ahmad Terrirudin plans to deal with these cases in the coming weeks and months, especially since Umno and Barisan Nasional are now part of the Pakatan Harapan Unity Government.