RAFIZI Ramli might have won his appeal to stay out of jail, but the politician has no plans to return to Parliament immediately as two other criminal cases are hanging over his head.

“I don’t want to think about coming back to Parliament for now,” the 40-year-old PKR vice-president told The Malaysian Insight after succeeding in his appeal against an 18-month jail sentence for disclosing the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) audit report to media despite it being an official secret.

The Court of Appeal yesterday set aside Rafizi’s jail sentence and replaced it with a two-year good behaviour bond.

The former Pandan MP was convicted on November 14, 2016, by the Sessions Court of revealing page 98 of the Auditor-General’s Report on 1MDB during a March 28, 2016, press conference.

He was also found guilty of possessing a copy of the report without approval, although the conviction was overturned last August. 

The report was placed under the Official Secrets Act in 2016, but its classified status has since been lifted after Pakatan Harapan (PH) took over the federal government following the 14th general election.

But while he has escaped jail time, Rafizi is not out of the woods yet, as he still faces two other criminal cases.

Rafizi was convicted of exposing businessman Mohamed Salleh Ismail’s bank accounts in 2012. He is National Feedlot Corporation, National Meat and Livestock Sdn Bhd, Agroscience Industries Sdn Bhd and NFC chairman.

In February this year, he was sentenced to 30 months’ jail by the Shah Alam High Court for breaking the Banking and Financial Institution Act in revealing information about the bank accounts. Rafizi is appealing that case.

On the same day, the Magistrate’s Court had also ordered Rafizi to stand trial on a criminal defamation charge for allegedly defaming Tabung Haji on Facebook in 2015.

Rafizi was alleged to have said that the pilgrim’s board had suffered a deficit for two successive years rendering it unable to return depositors’ savings if they took it out all at once. The case has yet to go to court.

“That’s a lot of cases I have had to deal with these past few years,” said Rafizi, who founded data analytics group Invoke, which almost accurately forecast the election results on May 9 that threw out the Barisan Nasional government.

“So, for now, I would just like to take a break for two years before deciding whether I should make a comeback to Parliament.”

Due to the many cases hanging over his head, Rafizi decided not to defend his Pandan parliamentary seat, which was won by PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail in the 14th general election.

For his role in exposing the numerous financial scandals, Rafizi has faced up to 14 court cases, ranging from criminal defamation to civil defamation. He has also been a thorn in the sides of top executives, such as Permodalan Nasional Bhd chairman Abdul Wahid Omar.

Both Wahid and Telekom Malaysia Bhd chief executive Shazalli Ramly are among the chiefs of government-linked companies under scrutiny by the Council of Eminent Persons that Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has set up to look into their operations. – June 2, 2018.