PUTRAJAYA (May 29): The Court of Appeal on Wednesday dismissed an appeal made by the widow of Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein’s former aide, who had been convicted and sentenced for receiving a bribe in 2018.

The widow is appealing against the late Zailan Jauhari’s conviction, where he was found guilty by the Shah Alam Sessions Court in 2018 of accepting an RM80,000 bribe when Hishammuddin was the defence minister.

Zailan was Hishammuddin’s parliament officer attached to the defence ministry.

He was convicted and sentenced to two years’ jail and fined RM400,000 by the Sessions Court, and the conviction and sentence was upheld by the High Court prior to this appeal. Zailan passed away in January last year.

However, he had already paid the RM400,000 fine at the Sessions Court, and was appealing the conviction and jail sentence. He was found guilty of accepting a RM60,000 cheque and RM20,000 in cash as an inducement to reward school-cleaning tenders for two companies in Kuala Selangor. The offence was committed at Mak Engku Steamboat & Grill, No 2, Jalan Bendahara 1/2, Taman Bendahara, in Kuala Selangor, between 7.30pm and 8pm on Jan 8, 2014.

In dismissing the appeal, Court of Appeal judge Datuk Hadhariah Syed Ismail ruled that there was overwhelming evidence against Zailan, and the court had to uphold the conviction and sentence.

Despite this, she ordered that the bail of RM60,000 be returned to the widow.

Hadhariah sat with judges Datuk Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim and Datuk Azmi Ariffin in the unanimous decision.

Counsel PG Cyril appeared for the widow, while deputy public prosecutor Fairuz Johari appeared for the prosecution.