KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court here has set July 25 to decide on the appeal against former Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) senior deputy director Sabudin Salleh’s acquittal from two charges of obtaining bribes amounting to RM200,000 to issue work permits.
Justice K Muniandy set the date after hearing submissions by deputy public prosecutor Wan Shaharuddin Wan Ladin, and lawyer K Theivaendran, who represented Sabudin.
During submissions, Wan Shaharuddin said the trial judge was confused by the charges Sabudin was facing and blamed the prosecution for failing to establish through its main witness, Wong May Kuan, that the accused had solicited the bribes.
“The trial judge committed a gross error and misdirection when he failed to consider the evidence that did not favour the respondent in deciding that the respondent had given an honest testimony,” he said.
Meanwhile, Theivaendran submitted that the trial judge made the right finding when acquitting his client based on the testimony of witnesses.
“Therefore, we request that the prosecution’s appeal be dismissed,” the lawyer said.
On Sept 15, 2022, a sessions court had, for a second time, acquitted Sabudin, 61, of the two corruption charges at the end of the defence’s case.
The sessions court had initially acquitted Sabudin of the same charges in December 2020 at the close of the prosecution’s case.
However, Sabudin was ordered to enter his defence after the High Court in March last year granted the prosecution’s appeal to set aside the lower court’s decision.
Sabudin, who was then senior deputy director at the DBKL civil engineering and urban transport division, was charged with corruptly receiving a bribe of RM200,000 in cash from Wong, a subcontractor of Dusari Niaga tasked by DBKL with carrying out grinding and resurfacing works from 2018 to 2020.
The money was allegedly an inducement for him to issue work permits to Dusari Niaga.
He was charged with committing the offences at the convenience store of a petrol station in Bukit Antarabangsa, here, and in front of his residence in Ukay Perdana, Ampang, on June 9, 2018 and Jan 17, 2019, respectively.