UMNO communications director Lokman Noor Adam is seeking the Attorney-General’s Chambers’ (AGC) review of the contempt case against him that is linked to the RM2.27 billion 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) graft case. 

Taking that into consideration, the Federal Court today postponed the hearing of Lokman’s appeal to February 14.  

The Umno supreme council member is trying to quash a lower court ruling that imposed a one-month jail sentence on him that is linked to the ongoing graft trial against former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak. 

Senior lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, lead defence counsel for Lokman, informed the Federal Court that they had just sent a letter of representation to AGC. 

The three-member apex court bench was chaired by Mohamad Zabidin Mohd Diah. The other judges are Zabariah Mohd Yusof and Harmindar Singh Dhaliwal.  

Deputy public prosecutor Mohd Dusuki Mokhtar confirmed AGC had received the representation, adding that they needed time to peruse the document. 

The prosecutor said they had no objections to the bid by Lokman’s lawyers to vacate the appeal hearing today. 

The three-man bench then deferred the hearing to February 14. 

On July 15, 2021, 1MDB trial judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah found Lokman, a former strategic communications director in the Finance Ministry, to be in contempt and sentenced him to one month in jail over an alleged threat against Najib’s former special officer Amhari Efendi Nazaruddin. 

Amhari was the eighth prosecution witness in Najib’s 1MDB graft trial. 

The prosecution contended that Lokman’s threat was made via a police report lodged at 3.24pm on September 25, 2019, as well as a media statement he issued and recorded a video of at 6.33pm the same day. 

The Court of Appeal upheld the committal ruling against Lokman on October 26 last year. – December 5, 2023.