Peter Anthony's review, prosecution's preliminary objection to be heard on July 9

New Straits Times

16-05-2025

KUALA LUMPUR: The Court of Appeal (CoA) today set July 9 to hear Datuk Peter Anthony's bid to review his guilty conviction, fine and jail term for falsifying documents related to a maintenance and service contract at Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) in 2014.
On the same day, the CoA panel will also hear the prosecution's preliminary objection (PO) against the review application of 54-year-old Anthony, who is the former Sabah infrastructure minister.
Deputy public prosecutor Datuk Wan Shaharuddin Wan Ladin said the date was set during case management held before deputy registrar Mohd Khairi Harun.
With Wan Shaharuddin was the deputy public prosecutor Haresh Prakash Somiah while lawyer Datuk Rosal Azimin Ahmad acted for Anthony.
On Tuesday, before a three-judge CoA panel led by Datuk Che Mohd Ruzima Ghazali, Wan Shaharuddin had raised a PO against Anthony's application, which sought a revision of his guilty conviction, a RM50,000 fine and a three-year prison term.
The prosecutor described the application as premature as the case's grounds of judgment was still being prepared.
Wan Shaharuddin had said parties should wait for the grounds of judgment to be ready as the broad grounds does not contain a point he wanted to submit on against Anthony's application.
Anthony, who was Parti Warisan Sabah vice-president, filed the review application on March 14 while the PO was on Apr 25.
On March 4, a three-member panel of CoA judges led by Datuk Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim ordered Anthony to be jailed after dismissing his appeal to overturn the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court decision in 2022, which was upheld by the High Court in 2023.
Che Ruzima ruled that the prosecution's PO and Peter's review application will be heard on a later date, with or without the grounds of judgement.
He had said his panel cannot revisit what had been discussed, submitted and decided by the earlier panel.
Rosal had said they wanted a review because there was suppression of evidence and new evidence on a police report.
He had said all they had were notes of proceedings as the grounds of judgement was not ready and they had not been given the court recording and transcription as requested.
He had called for Anthony's review to be heard soonest as his status as Melalap state assemblyman at the Sabah state assembly was still in a limbo.
Zaidi, who sat with judges Datuk Mohamed Zaini Mazlan and Datuk Azmi Ariffin, had said they were convinced that the Sessions Court had conducted a thorough judicial evaluation of the evidence and they found no errors that would justify their intervention.
Anthony then filed a review of the CoA's decision, where he sought to set aside the conviction and sentence; cancellation of the committal order as well as consequential orders to ensure justice in the case.
Anthony, as the managing director of Asli Jati Engineering Sdn Bhd, was charged with using a forged letter from UMS deputy vice-chancellor's office with the intention of deceiving the office of the principal private secretary to the prime minister.
The document was in regards to a purported collaboration with UMS to fund and set up an M&E technical training centre via direct negotiation in July 2014.
He had committed the offence at the Perdana Putra Building in Putrajaya between June 13, 2014, and Aug 21, 2014.
He was also charged with an alternative count of using a false document as genuine, namely a letter from the office of the deputy vice-chancellor of UMS dated June 9, 2014, which had a false statement in the title of the letter, and he had reason to believe that the document is false, at the same place and time.