A SECOND court today granted Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi the return of his impounded passport from October 26 to November 21 to seek medical treatment for his neck and back in Germany.

The order from the Kuala Lumpur High Court follows a similar application granted by the Shah Alam High Court earlier today.

At the Kuala Lumpur court, his application was allowed on condition of an extra surety.

“Just to clarify that the purpose is for the surgery and is confined to Germany alone?” judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah asked Zahid’s lawyers, to which counsel Hamidi Mohd Noh replied affirmatively. 

Deputy public prosecutor Gan Peng Kun said the prosecution had no objections.

The judge then imposed the additional condition of another surety.

Last week, Hamidi had informed the court that Zahid, who suffers from back and neck pain, needed to get treatment from a leading specialist in Munich. 

Shah Alam High Court judge Mohd Yazid Mustafa this morning also granted Zahid the temporary release of his passport.

The prosecution of Zahid’s case in Shah Alam High Court also did not object to the application. 

In the Kuala Lumpur court, 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.

He faces another 40 charges at the Shah Alam High Court, involving the extension of contract to Ultra Kirana Sdn Bhd while he was home minister, to operate the foreign visa system.

Zahid’s back injury was said to have worsened after slipping and falling in his toilet on August 18, according to Dr Mohd Shahir Anuar from Avisena Specialist Hospital, who was subpoenaed to the Kuala Lumpur High Court to explain the Bagan Datuk MP’s health condition.

Zahid’s lawyers have said his current treatment in Malaysia is only for pain intervention. – October 11, 2021.