THE Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) tarnished its reputation and credibility when it applied for a discharge not amounting to acquittal (DNAA) in Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s corruption case, the Malaysian Bar said today.

It said this was because the AGC had applied for the DNAA at such a late juncture after a prima facie case had already been established by the previous lead deputy public prosecutor.

Bar president Karen Cheah said the AGC’s statement on September 5 was devoid of justification for a DNAA.  

“With the DNAA granted by the High Court, Zahid’s counsel seized the opportunity to push for an outright acquittal.

“Let us be clear and make no mistake about it that the High Court judge (Collin Lawrence Sequerah) had no alternative but to decide on either a DNAA or an acquittal.

“It therefore rings hollow for the AGC to wholly attribute the withdrawal of the case to the High Court and use that as a reason in their statement, instead of providing a detailed explanation,” she said in a statement.

The AGC had said the application for a DNAA in the case was based on cogent reasons.  

“Following media reports that the AGC’s act of withdrawing the charges against Zahid is immoral, the department would like to stress that the decision was made based on reasons given and accepted by the court.

“When making the decision, the honourable judge stated that the reasons given by the prosecution were cogent,” the AGC statement read.

Cheah said Sequerah had stated that should the prosecution decide not to proceed with further charges, much precious judicial time would have been wasted and a great amount of taxpayers’ money would also have been frittered away.  

“We stress that the AG must take responsibility and be accountable to the citizens of the country.

“Should the prosecution decide in the near future to proceed with any further charges, then it should avail itself of the process of ‘reinstatement of trial after discharge’ under section 254A of the criminal procedure code.

“This is under which the Zahid trial shall be reinstated and continued as if no such DNAA order had been given.”

Cheah said there must be political will to separate the roles of the AG and public prosecutor.

This, she said, would create an independent judiciary free of any executive influence.

“The AG can take its advisory role to the government, but the public prosecutor acts as the guardian of public interest and must fulfil its functions and duties entrusted with utmost integrity. It must be free from political influence and bias to maintain public confidence in the Malaysian criminal justice system.”

Cheah added that the government of the day had recently announced that it will undertake a comprehensive empirical study within a year before finalising the proposed separation of the AG’s Office from the Public Prosecutor’s Office.

“The Zahid case has shown all of us that it is increasingly urgent that pivotal changes must take place by 2024 so that the criminal justice system is strengthened to remove prospects and/or appearance of bias in the way politicians are being charged, and in the way charges against them are being withdrawn.”

She said the Bar expects good sense and justice to prevail and that the unhealthy trend of the courts discharging high-profile figures will not continue.

Cheah said this is especially crucial in light of the ongoing 1MDB trials the former prime minister Najib Razak and his wife Rosmah Mansor are facing. – September 8, 2023.