PUTRAJAYA (Oct 14): The verdict expected to be delivered by the Federal Court, in the prosecution's appeal for forfeiture against Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ)-related entities scheduled for Oct 21, has been deferred again due to the implementation of the conditional movement control order (CMCO).

This is the second postponement after the three-member apex court bench led by Federal Court Judge Justice Datuk Vernon Ong Lam Kiat was initially slated to deliver its decision last Sept 28.

In a letter sighted by theedgemarkets.com dated yesterday, apex court deputy registrar Azniza Mohd Ali informed the parties that due to the implementation of the CMCO, the date for the bench to deliver its decision on Oct 21 had to be deferred to a day to be informed later.

The CMCO begins today in Selangor, Putrajaya and Kuala Lumpur until Oct 27, following an escalation in the number of new cases. The country saw 660 new infections yesterday.

Many forfeiture-related cases and appeals are awaiting the decision by the apex court, including various forfeiture actions against individuals and companies related to 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), who or which were allegedly paid by former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, the accused.

Besides Justice Ong, those who sat on the bench were Justice Datuk Zabariah Mohd Yusoff and Justice Datuk Seri Hasnah Mohammed Hashim.

The prosecution is seeking to forfeit movable and immovable properties that include cash of RM37.8 million, plus a land in Pulau Lumut, Klang, owned by Coastal Skyline Sdn Bhd, a land in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, owned by Wijaya Baru Sdn Bhd, and two plots of land in Section 13, Shah Alam, previously belonging to Selangor State Development Corp (PKNS) but was sold to Kuala Dimensi Sdn Bhd (KDSB).

The nine respondents named in the forfeiture action are KDSB — the main contractor of the PKFZ project — along with Transshipment Megahub Bhd, Coastal Skyline, Wijaya Baru Aviation Sdn Bhd, Wijaya Baru, Wijaya Baru Construction Sdn Bhd, Bintulu Member of Parliament (MP) Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing, Law Ka Hieng and PKNS.

Tiong was formerly the chief executive officer (CEO) of KDSB.

Prosecution lost twice

The prosecution failed in its application in the Shah Alam High Court, and then the decision was upheld by the Court of Appeal. Hence, this is their final appeal.

On June 30, the prosecution and respondents submitted before the bench where Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Faizah Mohd Salleh argued that although the prosecution had withdrawn charges against former Port Klang Authority (PKA) general manager OC Phang, the court should not use that as a reason to disallow the forfeiture.

She said the issue of Phang's charges being withdrawn was not argued in the High Court.

“No prosecution or conviction of the companies or individuals involved in the forfeiture proceedings is needed, as the government through the public prosecutor is only interested in recovering the money which was illegally obtained,” argued Faizah.

“All the prosecution needs to do is to convince the judge in the forfeiture proceedings that an offence of money-laundering has been committed on a proof of balance of probabilities. We (prosecution) say the High Court and the Court of Appeal had erred in their decision in dismissing our forfeiture case against them,” she added.

Porres Royan and Datuk Prem Ramachandran, the lawyers for the six companies involved in the forfeiture case, said all the payments were laid out based on agreements which had already drawn up.

The projects, they said, had long been completed and the government and PKA had already used the facility for years.

Read also:
Don’t disallow PKFZ forfeiture case just because CBT charges against OC Phang have been withdrawn — DPP