THE former press secretary to Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi told the Kuala Lumpur High Court today that she was aware of a signature stamp that belonged to the deputy prime minister, which she said was in the possession and control of Major Mazlina Mazlan @ Ramly.

Maj-Gen (R) Fadzlette Othman Merican Idris Merican said the signature stamp’s use was restricted to only certificates and festive greeting cards sent out by Zahid.

“This is because I had brought along certificates of appreciation before to Major Mazlina (Zahid’s former executive secretary) to be stamped with his signature, as he instructed,” she said.

Fadzlette said this when reading her witness statement in the trial of Zahid, who is facing 47 charges – 12 involving criminal breach of trust, corruption (8) and money laundering (27) – involving tens of millions of ringgit belonging to Yayasan Akalbudi.

The defence witness said she had to monitor Major Mazlina as the latter had been negligent in handling Zahid’s personal accounts.

Fadzlette said she knew of issues involving Mazlina’s negligence as Zahid had mentioned it before to her and had given the former instructions to monitor Mazlina, as she was of higher rank in the armed forces. 

“I informed Mazlina what Zahid told me. I had once asked Mazlina to show me the credit card statements and cheques that were prepared before they were to be signed by Zahid. 

“However, Mazlina was always giving all sorts of excuses and had never given me what I wanted. This went on and because I was constantly busy with official duties, I sometimes failed to monitor her and follow up with her on these matters,” she said. 

On work issues, Fadzlette, who is also the Umno president’s media director, said both she and Mazlina were always in touch to ensure work flowed smoothly, but added it was not easy to work together with her. 

She said Mazlina was someone who did not mingle with the other officers and did not regularly to attend weekly meetings with the rest at the Deputy Prime Minister’s office. 

“I noticed that she (Mazlina) likes to keep to herself and does not share her opinions with the other officers.

“When she was at the Home Ministry, Mazlina never respected me and failed to follow my orders although it involved official duties,” she testified. 

In past proceedings, Zahid told the court that Mazlina, without his knowledge, had used his signature stamp on the foundation’s cheques to settle the credit card payments belonging to him and his wife, Hamidah Khamis, when it should have been rightly used for certificates of appreciation and festive greeting cards.

Judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah is presiding over the trial. – Bernama, September 21, 2022.