PUTRAJAYA, April 8 — The Court of Appeal has dismissed a preliminary objection by the attorney-general’s chambers, ruling that the Malaysian Bar’s appeal for leave to challenge the AG’s decision to secure a discharge for Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi from his corruption case will proceed.

Senior federal counsel Ahmad Hanir Hambaly had raised the objection, noting that the Bar filed a separate application yesterday seeking leave to commence judicial review of the AG’s subsequent decision to take no further action in Zahid’s case.

Justice Faizah Jamaludin, delivering a unanimous ruling with Justices Lim Hock Leng and Nadzrin Wok Nordin, said the AG’s no further action decision, made in January this year, was a separate matter from his earlier decision to seek a discharge not amounting to an acquittal (DNAA) for Zahid in 2023.

“The fact that the appellant (Bar) has filed for a judicial review of the AG’s NFA decision does not make this appeal against the High Court decision to dismiss the application for leave for the judicial review over the AG decision relating to the DNAA academic,” she said.

The bench ruled that there were live and subsisting issues in the Bar’s appeal that warranted a full hearing, adding that they had taken into account Federal Court precedents which held that appellate courts are not barred from hearing appeals even if they appear academic.

Lawyer Ambiga Sreenevasan, appearing for the Bar, pointed out that Zahid had not been granted a full acquittal despite having made his application to the High Court. “The judge there has adjourned the matter pending the outcome of the Bar’s appeal in the Court of Appeal,” she said.

Lawyer Steven Thiru, also for the Bar, submitted that the appeal concerned a public law issue of public interest. “Our appeal to get leave is to challenge the power of the AG under the Federal Constitution and the Criminal Procedure Code,” he said.

On June 27, 2024, the High Court in Kuala Lumpur dismissed the Bar’s application for leave to commence judicial review proceedings to challenge the AG’s decision to discontinue the case against Zahid. Justice Amarjeet Singh ruled that the AG had no duty to furnish the Bar with any documents from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s investigations into the case.

On September 4, 2023, the High Court granted Zahid a DNAA order on 47 charges of corruption, money laundering, and criminal breach of trust pending further investigations by MACC. Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah allowed the application despite previously ruling that the prosecution had established a prima facie case against Zahid on all charges. The case was already at the defence stage, with Zahid and several other defence witnesses having already testified.

In a statement released on January 8, the AG’s Chambers said that, following a probe by the MACC, prosecutors had found the evidence insufficient to continue pursuing the charges.