Kinabatangan Member of Parliament Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin and his wife Datin Seri Zizie Izette Abdul Samad at the Kuala Lumpur Court Complex in Kuala Lumpur, April 9, 2025. — Bernama pic
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By Malay Mail
Wednesday, 09 Apr 2025 2:09 PM MYT
KUALA LUMPUR, April 9 — The Sessions Court here today granted the request by Kinabatangan Member of Parliament Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin and his wife Datin Seri Zizie Izette Abdul Samad to suspend their defence proceedings against three corruption charges amounting to RM2.8 million.
Judge Rosli Ahmad made the ruling after lawyer M. Athimulan informed the court that the prosecution did not object to the request, pending the outcome of the review application against the Court of Appeal’s decision which had ordered the couple to enter their defence on the charges, national news agency Bernama reported today.
“Both parties have submitted their arguments, but we were informed by the prosecution this morning that they do not object to the suspension of these proceedings,” said Athimulan, who is handling the couple’s case together with lawyer Datuk Seri K. Kumaraendran.
Meanwhile, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Law Chin How, who is handling the case with DPP Mohamad Fadhly Mohd Zamry, said they received instructions this morning that they would not object to the request.
“The trial was scheduled for today, but given that the suspension order has been granted, we request that the trial date be set after the resolution of the review application. The Deputy Registrar of the Court of Appeal has set a case management for the review application on April 11 to set a hearing date,” he said.
Judge Rosli then set new trial dates from August 18 to 20, September 2 to 4, and September 24 to 26, 2025.
“Accordingly, the previously scheduled trial dates, which were from April 9 to 11, April 14 and 15, as well as May 5 and 6, 2025, have been vacated,” he added.
The Court of Appeal on November 18 last year ordered Bung Moktar and Zizie Izette to enter their defence on the three corruption charges, after allowing the prosecution’s appeal against the couple’s acquittal by the High Court on September 7, 2023.
On September 2, 2022, Sessions Court Judge Rozina Ayob had ordered Bung Moktar and Zizie Izette to enter their defence on the three corruption charges, after ruling that the prosecution had successfully established a prima facie case against them at the close of the prosecution’s case.
Bung Moktar, 65, who was then the non-executive chairman of Felcra Berhad, was charged on May 3, 2019, with two charges of receiving bribes amounting to RM2.2 million and RM262,500 as an inducement to obtain Felcra’s approval to invest RM150 million in Public Mutual’s unit trust.
Bung Moktar is also accused of corruptly receiving for himself a bribe of RM337,500 in cash from Public Mutual Berhad investment agent Madhi Abdul Hamid via Zizie Izette, 46, at Public Bank Berhad’s Taman Melawati Branch here between 12.30pm and 5pm on June 12, 2015.
Bung Moktar is also accused of corruptly receiving another bribe, namely RM337,500 in cash, from another Public Mutual agent Norhaili Ahmad Mokhtar via the Public Ittikal Sequel Fund (PITSEQ) account registered under Zizie Izette, for the same purpose.
