PUTRAJAYA (March 1): Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has filed an appeal against the Court of Appeal’s decision to reinstate four abuse of power charges against him earlier this week. 

The notice of appeal was filed at the Federal Court by Muhyiddin's lawyer Chetan Jethwani on Thursday, stating an appeal against the Court of Appeal's decision in its entirety. 

This will be Muhyiddin’s final appeal against the charges for which he claimed trial to at the Sessions Court. The charges had been struck out at the High Court, before being reinstated at the Court of Appeal recently. 

In its decision, the court of appeal bench, led by Datuk Hadhariah Syed Ismail, ruled that there were appealable errors in High Court judge Datuk Muhammad Jamil Hussin’s decision to allow Muhyiddin’s application to strike out the charges on Aug 15 last year.

Hadhariah's stance was backed by Datuk Azmi Ariffin and Datuk SM Komathy.

Delivering the bench's unanimous decision, they said that the High Court judge had erred in striking out the charges.

"In our view, the four charges are clear and unambiguous [and] as such there is no necessity for the prosecution to set out the manner or give further particulars as to how the offence was committed.

"Therefore we allow the appeal and set aside the High Court order. The case is remitted to the Sessions Court Kuala Lumpur for the next course of action," Hadhariah said in delivering her judgement on Wednesday.

It had been Muhyiddin’s contention that the charges lacked particulars and as such, he could not mount a defence. Muhyiddin, via his lawyers, argued that the phrasing or the wording of his charges was wrong.

After reading out her decision, Hadhariah set March 4 for case management at the Sessions Court in Kuala Lumpur to update the Sessions Court judge on the status of Muhyiddin's appeal at the Federal Court and possibly seek a stay of proceedings until the appeal is disposed of. 

The appeal challenges the unanimous decision of the judges where they stated that Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia is a political society that comes within the definition of “associate”, as defined under Section 3 of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act, and that the High Court judge had erred in deciding that the four charges did not disclose any offence known to law.

It also challenges the decision that the four charges are clear and unambigious and that there was no necessity on the prosecution to set out the manner or give further particulars as to how the offence was committed.

Muhyiddin, 77, was charged along with his party, Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia, with having received RM232.5 million in bribes from corporate entities and an individual between March 1, 2020 and Aug 20, 2021, in his capacity as the then prime minister and Bersatu president.

According to the charges, the money from Bukhary Equity Sdn Bhd, Nepturis Sdn Bhd, Mamfor Sdn Bhd and Datuk Azman Yusoff was deposited into Bersatu’s bank accounts.

Muhyiddin also faces three additional money-laundering charges linked to these four charges.

The three charges are framed under the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001.

These charges are also on hold at the Sessions Court pending the disposal of Muhyiddin's appeal.