THE Court of Appeal this morning rejected the application of the former Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin (picture) to review the decision which reinstated four charges of abuse of power against him.

The five-judge panel of the Court of Appeal led by Datuk Azizah Nawawi unanimously decided this after finding that previous courts had jurisdiction to hear and decide on Muhyiddin’s application.

“We found that the respondent’s (prosecution) application to appeal against the decision of the Kuala Lumpur High Court, which dismissed the four charges, was made in accordance with Section 50(1) of the Court of Justice Act 1964.

“The previous Court of Appeal panel also had jurisdiction to hear and decide the appeal. Therefore, the review application is rejected,” said Azizah.

Sitting in the same panel are Datuk Che Mohd Ruzima Ghazali, Datuk Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim, Datuk Azman Abdullah and Datuk Azhahari Kamal Ramli.

At the previous argument proceedings, Muhyiddin’s defence counsel, Datuk Hisyam Teh Poh Teik raised the issue of the Court of Appeals’ jurisdiction to “revive” the four charges that had been quashed by the Kuala Lumpur High Court.

With today’s decision, Muhyiddin remains on trial on seven charges including three charges involving money laundering.

The case is set for mention at the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court on Sept 27.

Last February, a panel of three judges of the Court of Appeal led by Datuk Hadhariah Syed Ismail with Datuk Azmi Ariffin and Datuk SM Komathy Suppiah decided that the four charges should be “revived” after finding that the High Court Judge had made a mistake when cancelling all the charges earlier.

Muhyiddin filed the review application on Feb 29 on the grounds that the three-judge panel had decided that the four charges under Section 23(1) of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act 2009 imposed on the former prime minister (PM) were clear.

In the decision of the Kuala Lumpur High Court dated Aug 15, 2023, Judge Datuk Muhammad Jamil Hussin acquitted Muhyiddin after finding that all four charges were flawed, unfounded and unclear.

He ruled that the charges faced by the president of Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia did not reveal the details of the offence committed, causing the accused to be unable to provide further instructions to the lawyer representing him.

According to the first to fourth charges, Muhyiddin is accused of using his position as PM and president of Bersatu to receive bribes of RM200 million, RM1 million, RM19.5 million and RM12 million, totalling RM232.5 million, from three companies and one individual for Bersatu.

All the acts were allegedly committed at the PM’s Office, Main Block, Perdana Putra Building, Federal Government Administration Centre, Putrajaya, between March 1, 2020, and Aug 20, 2021. — TMR