On April 22, Tengku Adnan visited the Palace of Justice in Putrajaya. (Photo courtesy of The Edge/Mohd Suhaimi Mohamed Yusuf)
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PUTRAJAYA, 16 JULY: Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor, a former Federal Territories minister and Putrajaya Member of Parliament, was today cleared of RM2 million in graft that went into a corporate account that he controls by a three-member Court of Appeal bench.
The appeal was permitted by Justice Datuk Suraya Othman, who led the bench, and Datuk Ahmad Nasfy Yasin, while Datuk Abu Bakar Jais, the bench’s second-most senior judge, dissented.
Tengku Adnan, also known as Ku Nan, is acquitted and free of the graft charge as a result of this.
The bench hoped to deliver the judgement sooner but had to postpone it owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, according to Justice Suraya.
She said that one of the key aspects of the crime — the RM2 million paid by Aset Kayamas Sdn Bhd managing director Tan Sri Chai Kin Kong — was paid not for Tengku Adnan but for two by-elections in Kuala Kangsar and Sungai Besar in June 2016.
This, she pointed out, was revealed by Chai during his evidence, and the prosecution did not object.
“His credibility as the star witness [of the amount] being a gift to Umno was not called into question. Tengku Adnan had demanded RM5 to RM6 million in donations for the two by-elections, according to the witness “The prosecution did not cross-examine Chai on this or treat him as a hostile witness in this case because he was willing to pay RM2 million for it. The chief operating officer of Tadmansori Sdn Bhd (a firm controlled by Ku Nan) testified that the money was for Umno, which backed up the evidence.
“In addition, investigating officer Mohd Saad Bordani of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission testified and agreed that Chai and Tengku Adnan told him the RM2 million was for a political donation,” Justice Suraya wrote in the majority judgment.
The court acquits the accused of the charge due to the uncontested testimony and the majority decision, according to the judge.
The appeal was heard on April 22, but the bench didn’t make a judgement until later that month.
Tengku Adnan is represented by counsel Datuk Tan Hock Chuan and Datuk S Satharuban, while the prosecution is represented by Deputy Public Prosecutors Datin Nurshuhaida Zainal Azahar and Asmah Musa.
Tengku Adnan, 70, was found guilty of graft on December 21 by High Court Justice Mohamed Zaini Mazlan for taking RM2 million from Chai.
Ku Nan was sentenced to a year in prison and an RM2 million fine, which he successfully appealed.
There will be more to come.
Ku Nan was sentenced to 12 months in prison and an RM2 million fine for corruption./n
