KUALA LUMPUR (April 10): The Malaysian Bar has filed a fresh judicial review at the High Court to challenge the Attorney General’s decision to take no further action (NFA) in Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s Yayasan Akalbudi trial, which was already at an advanced stage.
The Bar labelled the decision “irrational, unreasonable, and against public interest”.
In the application filed at the Kuala Lumpur High Court by legal firm Abhilaash Subramaniam & Co on behalf of the Bar, the AG and Zahid have been named as the first and second respondents.
The Bar is seeking to quash the NFA announced by the AG on Jan 8 this year. It is also seeking a declaration that the NFA decision is null and void, and was made in excess of the jurisdiction vested in the AG under Article 145(3) of the Federal Constitution and Section 254(1) of the Criminal Procedure Code.
The Bar is also seeking an order compelling the AG to recharge Zahid and commence a fresh criminal trial.
In addition, it wants the AG to furnish all information, documentation, reasons, basis and particulars relied upon in arriving at the NFA decision.
The documents sought include the letters of representation Zahid sent to the AG during the course of his trial, requesting a review of the charges against him.
The Bar said these documents are necessary for it to fulfil its statutory obligations and responsibilities under, among others, Section 42 of the Legal Profession Act 1976.
In the judicial review statement filed together with the application, the Bar is also seeking a declaration that the AG had acted “in excess” of his powers and made an “irrational and unreasonable decision”.
“... the said decision was contrary to the decision of the High Court of 24.1.2022 that determined that the prosecution had established a prima facie case against Zahid and, further, ordered him to enter his defence on all 47 charges in the said cases,” the statement read.
The Bar further contended that the AG’s decision was “contrary to public interest, in view of the dissipation of substantial judicial time and resources as well as substantial public funds and resources towards the said cases”.
Zahid faced 47 charges of corruption and criminal breach of trust involving RM42 million, and 27 money laundering charges involving RM72 million, all of which he denied.
The trial ran for 77 days, with 99 prosecution witnesses and 15 defence witnesses, and had already reached the stage where Zahid was ordered to enter his defence.
In September 2023, the High Court granted him a discharge not amounting to an acquittal (DNAA) after prosecutors withdrew the charges pending further investigation by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.
Judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah, who presided over the case then, reluctantly allowed the case’s withdrawal and warned: “Should the prosecution decide in the near future that they will not proceed any further with the charges, then much precious judicial time would be wasted, and a great amount of taxpayers money would have been wasted.”
The Bar argued that the later NFA decision goes against public interest, as it wastes significant time, resources, and public funds already spent on the case.
The move comes after the Bar failed in its earlier challenge against Zahid’s DNAA. In June 2024, the High Court ruled that the AG’s decision was protected by prosecutorial discretion and could not be reviewed.
The case is now at the Court of Appeal, with hearings ongoing and set to continue on April 15.