THE High Court in Kuala Lumpur today accepted a major portion of a witness statement by Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s former press secretary in his Yayasan Akalbudi corruption trial.

However, Judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah ordered three paragraphs – the last line in paragraphs 17 and 22, and the whole of paragraph 18 – be deleted from the witness statement of Maj Gen (retd) Fadzlette Othman Merican Idris Merican, the second defence witness.

“I find that the rest of the questions relate to facts directly in the issue forming the core of the defence case and, therefore, are not collateral matters under section 153 of the Evidence Act 1950.

“With regard to paragraphs 16 and 17, I agree with the defence that the matters contained constitute a narrative introduction as to how Fadzlette came to know Zahid’s former executive secretary, Maj Mazlina Mazlan Ramly,” he said.

On Monday, the prosecution objected to parts of Fadzlette’s statement on grounds that they were irrelevant and inadmissible. 

Yesterday, the defence contended that Zahid would be deprived of a fair trial if that was the case.

Sequerah said he found that section 153 of the Evidence Act applied to very specific circumstances, and that was where the evidence adduced went only as far as to injure the Maj Mazlina’s character and was not relevant.

“In those circumstances, once a witness has answered the question, section 153 of the Evidence Act will operate to prevent any adverse party from introducing contradictory evidence.

“I find the part in paragraphs 18 falls under the prohibitory ambit of section 153,” he said.

The judge also said in his decision that he would be accepting the four proposed witness statements to save the court’s time.

“Therefore, those witness statements will be admitted as they are but without prejudice to the prosecution’s right to ask for the offending paragraphs or portions of the witness statements to be expunged at the end of the case by way of submission of the whole case,” he said.

The court then ordered the witness statements to be amended accordingly. 

The hearing continues with Fadzlette reading her witness statements. She was press secretary to Zahid when he was deputy prime minister, and she is now the media director for the Umno president.

On August 30, Zahid, 69, completed giving evidence to defend himself after 17 days on the witness stand.

He is facing 47 charges – 12 for criminal breach of trust, eight for corruption and 27 for money laundering – involving tens of millions of ringgit belonging to Yayasan Akalbudi. – Bernama, September 21, 2022.