Macc Appeals To Set Aside Order To Provide Statement To Company Director

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Sim Choo Thiam is charged with soliciting and accepting a RM15 million bribe as an inducement for the then home minister to award projects to a company. (Bernama pic)KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has gone to the Court of Appeal to set aside a High Court order compelling it to furnish a written statement of facts favouring a company director charged with corruption.
Lawyer Low Wei Loke, appearing for Sim Choo Thiam, said the prosecution had filed a notice of appeal in the High Court here last week.
Meanwhile, the prosecution has also obtained an interim stay of the High Court order made on March 21.
“This means that MACC will for now not furnish the written statement to Sim in preparation for his defence,” he told FMT.
Low said Justice K Muniandy will hear the defence’s objection to the stay application on May 10.
“We will put in a written objection as to why the stay application should be disallowed pending the outcome in the Court of Appeal,” he said.
However, he said that during a proceeding before Muniandy last Friday, the prosecution had agreed to stay Sim’s 10-day trial scheduled to begin on May 6.
Sim, 54, is facing four charges of soliciting and accepting bribes of RM15 million to secure projects from a home ministry agency.
According to Sim, the fact in favour of the defence is that he was charged before MACC recorded a statement from former home minister Hamzah Zainudin, whose name was mentioned in Sim’s charges.
Sim also claimed that his cautioned statements, recorded by MACC on Feb 16 and 28 last year, did not support the alleged corruption charges against him.
In his March 21 ruling, Muniandy directed MACC to furnish the statement after finding there were favourable facts to be disclosed by the prosecution to the accused before trial, thus ensuring his right to a fair trial.
On May 10, 2023, Sim was charged with soliciting a RM15 million bribe from Hep Kim Hong, the managing director of Asia Coding Centre Sdn Bhd, through Syed Abu Zafran Syed Ahmad as an inducement for Hamzah to award projects to the company.
He was also charged with three counts of accepting RM15 million in bribes from the same individual as an inducement for Hamzah to similarly award other projects.
The offences were allegedly committed at the Shaas Holdings office and a parking lot at Solaris Dutamas, Jalan Dutamas 1 here, between June and July 2021. - FMT

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