UMNO president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has applied to the Kuala Lumpur and Shah Alam High Courts for the temporary release of his impounded passport to travel to Germany for medical treatment, his lawyer said today.

Defence counsel Hamidi Mohd Noh told Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah that his client’s current treatment in Malaysia is only for pain intervention and that Zahid requires specialist treatment in Munich, Germany.

“He was originally treated by this doctor way back in 2014 and 2016. The pain intervention here is not sufficient and he is still suffering, my lord,” Hamidi said during case management today at the Kuala Lumpur High Court.

The lawyer later told reporters outside the courtroom that Zahid will need his passport from October 26 to November 21, and confirmed that he has no trial dates during that period.

However, Hamidi said Zahid’s trial dates set on November 18 and 19 at the Shah Alam High Court may be affected.

Deputy public prosecutor Gan Peng Kun today told the court that “the prosecution has instructions not to object to the application”.

Collin, the judge presiding over Zahid’s trial, said he will decide on this application next Monday.

Zahid, 68, is currently facing 47 charges – 12 counts of criminal breach of trust, 27 counts of money laundering, and eight counts of bribery – involving tens of millions of ringgit in funds belonging to his charity foundation Yayasan Akalbudi.

The Bagan Datuk MP is also facing a separate corruption trial involving 40 charges at the Shah Alam High Court. That case is being heard before judge Mohd Yazid Mustafa. – October 7, 2021.