Bung Moktar, his wife testified starting June 15
Defence trial of Bung Moktar, wife on graft charges to begin June 15
Six witnesses to be called, including defendants
KUALA LUMPUR: Member of Parliament for Kinabatangan Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin and his wife Datin Seri Zizie Izette Abdul Samad will defend themselves to answer three charges of corruption in the Sessions Court here on 15 June.
Judge Rozina Ayob set the date at the mention of the case today which was attended by Deputy Public Prosecutor Noor Syafina Mohd Radzuan, lawyer M. Athimulan representing Bung Moktar and lawyer Teh See Khoon representing Zizie Izette.
“The court needs to set a trial date since this case has been going on for a long time. Therefore, the court set the trial to start in June on 15, 16, 26 and 27 while July on 10 to 14, 20, 21, 24 and 25,” said Rozina who also set 27 March for mention.
Earlier, Athimulan said so far a total of six defense witnesses including Bung Moktar and his wife will testify at the trial set for 13 days.
“Our side is still considering whether to provide a witness statement or not,” he said.
Asked by Rozina about the status of the couple’s appeal at the Court of Appeal, Teh said the case management of the appeal was set for March 22 while waiting for the appeal record which has not yet been completed.
The couple filed an appeal against the decision of the High Court here which rejected their application to review the decision of the Sessions Court which ordered the two to defend themselves on the three charges.
On 3 January last, High Court Judge Datuk Azhar Abdul Hamid granted the application of Bung Moktar, 63, and Zizie Izette, 44, to suspend the self-defence trial, while waiting for their appeal to be disposed of at the Court of Appeal.
On 2 Sept 2022, the Sessions Court ordered the couple to defend themselves on three charges of corruption after finding that the prosecution successfully proved a prima facie case against them.
On 3 May 2019, Bung Moktar was charged with two charges of accepting bribes amounting to RM2.2 million and RM262,500 as an inducement to obtain Felcra’s approval to invest RM150 million in Public Mutual unit trusts.
Bung Moktar is accused of accepting bribes from Public Mutual agent, Madhi Abdul Hamid, through Zizie Izette at Public Bank Taman Melawati Branch here between 12.30pm and 5pm on 12 June 2015.
He was also charged with receiving a cash bribe of RM337,500 from Unit Amanah consultant, Norhaili Ahmad Mokhtar under the name of Zizie Izette for the same reason and at the same place on 19 June 2015 while Zizie Izette is facing three charges of abetting her husband in relation to the matter at the same place, date and the same time.
