MUSA Aman’s acquittal is different from the deal Riza Aziz received from the government less than a month ago, said the former Sabah chief minister’s lawyer.

The Kuala Lumpur High Court today allowed the defence’s application for a full acquittal after the prosecution withdrew charges against the 69-year-old Umno politician. 

Lead defence counsel Amer Hamzah said unlike Riza’s case, Musa’s legal team had previously filed an application to set aside the charges, arguing they were defective and smacked of political persecution. 

The defence had also claimed that the monies Musa received were political donations. 

Riza, who is Najib Razak’s stepson, was granted a discharge not amounting to an acquittal after being charged with five counts of money-laundering involving US$248 million (RM1.07 billion) via a Hollywood production house. 

Putrajaya said it was part of an agreement that will see Riza returning about US$107 million in assets to Malaysia. 

Riza’s lawyers had filed a representation to the Attorney-General’s Chambers in November for the money-laundering charges to be dropped, provided certain conditions were met. 

“The cases are different. We had filed an application to strike out and quash the charges against Musa. 

“Our application is supported by an affidavit which has set out all the important facts,” Amer told The Malaysian Insight, adding that the defence had also filed a supporting affidavit from former A-G Abdul Gani Patail. 

“We have a strong case to strike out the charges on grounds of abuse of process, political persecution, and mala fide (acting in bad faith) prosecution. 

“Musa was cleared by the Independent Commission Against Corruption of Hong Kong (ICAC) and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission in 2012. 

“So, we argued that despite that, charges were filed against my client after the 2018 general elections. Why the wait? Tan Sri Musa Aman should not have been charged in November 2018 in the first place because he had been cleared by the MACC and ICAC.” 

Musa was slapped with 30 charges of corruption and 16 charges of money-laundering. He was accused of abusing his position as the chief minister and Sabah Foundation chairman to receive US$50 million (RM213 million) from eight logging concessionaires as inducement to approve logging concessions for 16 companies between 2004 and 2008. 

After justice Muhammad Jamil Hussin agreed to acquit Musa today, the defence also dropped its strike out application as well as another application to challenge the constitutionality of the case. 

In a supporting affidavit to the strike out application filed on June 5, former A-G Gani had said that Musa was the subject of investigation by ICAC and MACC between 2008 and 2012.

Gani, who was A-G from 2002 until 2015, said the case was categorised as “no further action” in the affidavit sighted by The Malaysian Insight. 

“The decision was a personal one but one that was collectively done by senior officers, including prosecution division chief Abd Majid Tun Hamzah, MACC chief commissioner Abu Kassim Mohammad and MACC investigations chief Mustafar Ali after reviewing the investigation papers from all aspects,” he said, adding the decision was made ‘in public interest’. 

No elements of “quid pro quo” were found in the receiving of the monies, he said. 

Gani said former law minister Nazri Aziz had informed Parliament on October 8, 2012 that the Attorney-General’s Chambers not found elements of corruption in Musa’s case. 

Amer said the decision to withdraw the charges against his client today was “the right decision based on the facts and circumstances of this case.” 

“If we succeeded in our application, we would not have hesitated to file an action of malicious prosecution against the government.” 

Today’s acquittal means Musa cannot be tried again for the same offence. The Sabah Barisan Nasional leader does not have any outstanding criminal charges against him. 

He has one ongoing civil case, where he is suing to be recognised as the Sabah chief minister, following the results of the 2018 general election. 

That case will be heard by the Federal Court. – June 9, 2020.