PUTRAJAYA (March 4): Sabah’s former infrastructure development minister Datuk Peter Anthony will be sent to jail after the Court of Appeal dismissed his final appeal against his conviction for document falsification related to a maintenance and service contract at Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) in 2014.
The three-member panel, comprising Datuk Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim, Datuk Mohamed Zaini Mazlan and Datuk Azmi Ariffin, upheld the Sessions Court’s decision on his conviction and sentence – three years’ imprisonment, along with a fine of RM50,000..
He begins his jail sentence on Tuesday, following the committal order issued by the court. He has paid the fine.
Tuesday's decision also means that the Parti Kesejahteraan Demokratik Masyarakat (KDM) chief risks losing his Melalap state assembly seat and will not be able to contest in the upcoming state election, which is slated to be held by October this year.
In gist, Peter, 54, was charged in 2015 for forging the title in a letter of support to secure the contract for his company, Syarikat Asli Jati Sdn Bhd. The contract had already been awarded to REMT Utama Sdn Bhd (REMT) via open tender.
Peter’s company had already been doing work on another project for the university.
The appellate court concurred with the Session’s Court’s decision, primarily that there was circumstantial evidence to show that Peter had indeed forged the said document for his benefit.
Reading the decision on Tuesday, Zaini said that the Sessions Court’s decision was sound and there was no need for the appellate court's ratification.
"It is a well-established legal principle that, in an appeal, the appellate court should not alter the factual findings of the lower court unless those findings are shown to be incorrect.
"This is especially important when the conclusions depend heavily on the credibility of the witnesses, and the impressions formed by the court that directly observed and assessed their honesty and accuracy.
"We are convinced that the Sessions Court provided a thorough judicial evaluation of the evidence, and we find no errors that would justify intervention by the appellate court. Therefore, we conclude that the conviction of the accused is sound," he said.
Zaini said that the panel also concurred with the Sessions Court’s finding that Peter deceived Mohd Shukur Mohd Din, then-UMS’ deputy vice-chancellor Professor Dr Shariff Abdul Kadir S Omang, and then-UMS registrar Datuk Abdullah Mohd Said, into believing that the letter was related to another project.
The judges also agreed with the lower court’s finding that the forged letter had also misled then-prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak into thinking that Peter’s company had secured the contract.
Mohd Shukur, Shariff, Abdullah, and Najib were all prosecution witnesses in the trial at the lower court.
This is Peter’s final appeal. He had appealed Sessions Court judge Azura Alwi’s decision to the High Court. However, High Court judge Datuk Ahmad Bache dismissed his application in April 2023.
Peter, as the managing director of Syarikat Asli, was accused of including a false statement in the title of the letter, with the intention of using it to deceive the office of the then-principal private secretary (the late Datuk Azlin Alias) to the then-prime minister Najib, in Putrajaya between June and August 2014.
Peter was charged under Section 468 of the Penal Code for forging a document for the purpose of cheating, which entails imprisonment for up to seven years and a fine.