Peter Anthony's review hearing adjourned pending written judgment
Published on: Tuesday, May 13, 2025
Published on: Tue, May 13, 2025
By: V Anbalagan, FMT Text Size: PUTRAJAYA: A Court of Appeal panel has adjourned former Sabah minister Peter Anthony's application to review his forgery conviction as it awaits the written judgment from another Court of Appeal bench. A three-member bench chaired by Justice Che Ruzima Ghazali said that both the prosecution's preliminary objection and Peter's review application would proceed on the next date, regardless of whether the written judgment was available. Case management will be held on Friday to set a new hearing date. Justices Azman Abdullah and Azhahari Kamal Ramli were the other panel members. Deputy public prosecutor Wan Shahruddin Wan Ladin said they were still waiting for the written reasons from another Court of Appeal panel upholding Peter's conviction and sentence. That panel – comprising Justices Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim, Zaini Mazlan, and Azmi Ariffin – delivered its broad oral grounds of judgment on March 4. Peter's lawyer, Rozal Azimin Ahmad, said they were ready to proceed without the written judgment, but Wan Shahruddin insisted that the review could not move forward until the document was available. Justice Ruzima said Peter must demonstrate a breach of procedural fairness for the review to be allowed, which could be done even without the written judgment. 'This bench cannot revisit the decision made by the previous bench,' he said. On March 14, Peter, the former Parti Kesejahteraan Demokratik Masyarakat president, filed an application for an appeals court review in an attempt to overturn his conviction for forgery in connection with a university contract 11 years ago. Peter contended that the Court of Appeal had not considered a 2018 police report in arriving at its decision to uphold his conviction and sentence on March 4. He said the disclosure of the police report by prosecution witness and businessman Shukur Din could have led to a different outcome in his case. In his application, Peter sought a review by another appeals court bench. Peter was sentenced to three years' jail and fined RM50,000 by the sessions court in Kuala Lumpur in 2022. He has paid the fine and is currently serving his sentence. He was convicted of falsifying documents related to a maintenance and service contract at Universiti Malaysia Sabah 11 years ago. He was charged in his capacity as managing director of Syarikat Asli Jati Sdn Bhd with forging a letter from the office of the deputy vice-chancellor, dated June 9, 2014, by inserting a false statement to use it for fraudulent purposes. Peter is the Melalap assemblyman. His seat will be automatically vacated after he has exhausted all legal avenues to overturn his conviction. * Follow us on Instagram and join our Telegram and/or WhatsApp channel(s) for the latest news you don't want to miss. * Do you have access to the Daily Express e-paper and online exclusive news? Check out subscription plans available.
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