GOMBAK lawmaker Amirudin Shari has accused the previous Perikatan Nasional-led (PN) government of dropping high-profile corruption cases for its own benefit.

Referring to former Sabah chief minister Musa Aman’s court case, Amirudin said Musa’s acquittal led to the 2020 Sabah elections.

“The Sabah elections happened because of (Musa’s) acquittal. Semporna (Mohd Shafie Apdal) can confirm this.

“There are pictures of some government leaders visiting (Musa), which led to some state assemblymen shifting their allegiance … to PN at the time,” said the Selangor menteri besar in parliament today.

Amirudin accused then law minister Takiyuddin Hassan of defending the decision as constitutional.

Takiyuddin had cited the public prosecutor’s powers under article 145 of the Federal Constitution to initiate, conduct or discontinue any proceedings.

The Kota Bharu MP also cited the powers of the attorney-general under section 376 of the Criminal Procedure Code over all criminal prosecutions and proceedings.

In June 2020, the prosecution withdrew 46 corruption and money laundering charges against Musa following an instruction from the Attorney-General’s Chambers.

This drew an interjection from Takiyuddin, who asked Amiruddin for an example of an incident during the previous PN administration’s tenure comparable to Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi being granted a discharge not amounting to acquittal (DNAA).

“Musa’s case hadn’t even started then, but Bagan Datuk’s (Zahid) trial was given a DNAA at such a late stage.

“Ninety-nine witnesses were called and the prosecution had succeeded in proving a prima facie case, but then an extraordinary representation was submitted before the case was dropped.

“Prove to me that a similar case to Zahid’s was dropped from 2020 to 2022,” the former law minister said.

Amirudin’s response was, “The incident may not have been exactly the same”, which drew loud jeers from the opposition bench.

Amiruddin then called on the government to expedite the separation of powers between the attorney-general and public prosecutor.

“The separation of powers must be done immediately. If not, whoever holds the government, we will face a similar situation as now,” he said.

Amirudin welcomed Putrajaya’s formation of two task forces to kick-start institutional reforms to separate the attorney-general’s roles as both the government’s legal adviser and public prosecutor.

Law and Institutional Reform Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Azalina Othman Said said the two task forces – comparative study and technical – would expedite reforms for long-standing concerns about possible conflicts of interest with the attorney-general serving both roles. – September 13, 2023.