PUTRAJAYA, Aug 20 — Former Sabah Infrastructure Development Minister Datuk Peter Anthony will serve his three-year prison sentence after failing in his bid to review his conviction and sentence for falsifying documents related to a Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) maintenance and service contract.
A Court of Appeal three-member panel here, consisting Justices Datuk Azman Abdullah, Datuk Noorin Badaruddin and Datuk Hayatul Akmal Abdul Aziz, today dismissed Peter’s review application.
In reading the court’s decision, Justice Azman said there was no breach of natural justice as the applicant (Peter) had been accorded the right to be heard at his appeal.
He added that the absence of the issue relating to a police report lodged by a witness, the late Mohd Shukur Mohd Din, in the broad grounds of the Court of Appeal did not amount to a miscarriage of justice as the matter had been clearly addressed in the appellate court’s full judgment.
“We find that there was no miscarriage of justice as P4A (the police report) was argued extensively,” he said.
Justice Azman also said the court’s assumption has been supported by the Court of Appeal’s full grounds of judgment, where the issue on the police report was thoroughly discussed, adding that it was not the court’s duty to rehear evidence and facts that have been decided on.
In the police report dated Aug 9, 2018, Mohd Shukur, then UMS deputy vice-chancellor, claimed that his statement recorded by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) in Kota Kinabalu on July 20, 2017 was untrue, as he had been placed under pressure. He alleged that the last paragraph of his statement was concocted to implicate Peter.
The police report was only discovered by Peter after his trial concluded. In February last year, he applied to the Court of Appeal to adduce new evidence under Section 61 of the Courts of Judicature Act 1964. The court admitted the police report, though Mohd Shukur had since passed away.
Peter sought a review of the March 4 decision this year by a different Court of Appeal panel which upheld his conviction, three-year prison term and RM50,000 fine imposed by the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court in May 2022. The 54-year-old has already paid the fine.
The Kuala Lumpur High Court had, on April 18, 2023, affirmed the Sessions Court’s ruling. Peter then appealed to the Court of Appeal but lost, prompting him to file the present review application.
He was charged, in his capacity as managing director of Asli Jati Sdn Bhd, with falsifying a letter from UMS’ office of the deputy vice-chancellor dated June 9, 2014 by inserting false statements with the intent to deceive. The offence was allegedly committed at the office of the principal private secretary to the Prime Minister, Perdana Putra, between June 13 and Aug 21, 2014.
In today’s proceedings, Peter’s lawyer Mohamed Haniff Khatri Abdulla argued that the previous Court of Appeal panel had failed to directly address and give proper judicial consideration to the police report, which he claimed had prejudiced his client and resulted in a miscarriage of justice.
He contended that although the deliberations were eventually included in the grounds of judgment issued on Aug 1, several months after the court delivered its broad grounds, it amounted to an afterthought. He urged that the case be remitted to the Sessions Court for a retrial.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Wan Shaharuddin Wan Ladin, however, submitted that there was no breach of natural justice as the issue of the police report had been extensively argued before the appellate court. He said there were also no special circumstances to justify granting Peter’s review application.
Following today’s ruling, Peter, who is the Melalap assemblyman, is likely to lose his seat as he has exhausted all legal avenues to set aside his conviction and sentence. However, no formal announcement has been made by the Sabah State Assembly on his status. — Bernama
