KUALA LUMPUR (June 22): Former Youth and Sports Ministry finance division secretary Otman Arsahd's appeal against his sentence and his guilty conviction on 96 counts of corruption and money laundering has been postponed to September.

Kuala Lumpur Special Corruption High Court judge Noor Ruwena Md Nurdin reluctantly granted the adjournment as Otman's counsel Muhammad Rafique Rashid Ali stressed that parties had only recently received the full records of proceedings, which were needed for a more comprehensive submission.

"[This case] is from July 2023. It is also in your client's interest to have the appeal heard in a timely manner,” said the judge.

"[However, I don't want it to be said] later that the court was apathetic [tak prihatin]," judge Ruwena said, adding that given this was the first adjournment, she would grant it.

The appellant had previously written to the court twice this month, seeking an adjournment.

Deputy public prosecutor Farah Yasmin Salleh led the prosecution team on Monday.

The appeal hearing is now fixed for Sept 21 through to Sept 23.

When met by the press later, Rafique of Law Practice of Rafique said that they had only received the complete notes of proceedings — containing, among others, submissions, witness testimonies, rulings — from the lower court, on June 4.

The lawyer said there were 11 boxes of documents which needed to be perused for a more thorough submission at the appeal stage.

In 2023, Sessions Court judge Kamarudin Kamsun had found Otman guilty of all charges and sentenced him to 15 years in jail and a fine of RM284.2 million.

According to news reports, for the 17 offences involving false claims, the court had sentenced Otman to a total of 243 years’ imprisonment and a fine of RM190 million, or in default of payment, 119 months’ imprisonment.

For 15 charges of abuse of position, Otman was sentenced to 85 years’ imprisonment and fined RM10.8 million, or in default, 125 months’ imprisonment.

Meanwhile, for 64 charges of receiving proceeds from unlawful activities, the court ordered Otman to be imprisoned for three months to 11 years and fined RM83.4 million, or in default, 934 months’ imprisonment.

The court found that the defence had failed to raise any reasonable doubt and that the prosecution had successfully proved their case against Otman.