PETALING JAYA: Former Sabah chief minister Tan Sri Musa Aman walked out a free man today after he was acquitted and discharged of all 46 criminal charges slapped against him in 2018 and 2019.
High Court judge Justice Muhammad Jamil Hussin granted the order after deputy public prosecutor Datuk Azhar Abdul Hamid told the court that the prosecution intended to withdraw all the charges during case management at the Kuala Lumpur High Court.
In a statement later, Musa’s lawyer Amer Hamzah Arshad said funds that the former Sabah chief minister was accused of receiving wrongfully had nothing to do with projects in the state but instead were mere political donations.
Amer Hamzah explained that all funds involved in Musa’s 46 charges were donations.
“Tan Sri Musa Aman was investigated by Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) as well as the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) between 2008 and 2011.
“During the period of investigation conducted by the ICAC and the MACC, the two parties cooperated and communicated and carried out their investigations in a professional manner.
“After conducting thorough investigations, the MACC found that there was no element of corruption and that the money being investigated was political contributions.
“The matter was confirmed by former MACC director of Investigation Division, Datuk Seri Mustafar Ali and it was notified to the ICAC in a letter dated September, 2011.” Amer Hamzah said.
He added that after the ICAC had conducted their thorough investigation, the ICAC also had issued a letter dated Dec 22, 2011 to Musa stating that the probe had been completed and no further actions would be taken against him.
Amer Hamzah said the funds that were the subject of prosecution were clearly proven in previous investigations as being political contributions by party supporters, donors, the public and Barisan Nasional/Umno headquarters for use in preparations for by-elections and general elections, and activities and expenditure of Barisan Nasional/Umno Sabah.
“All relevant documents (on the matter) were given to the MACC.
“At all material times, these political contributions do not involve any projects for the state of Sabah, logging concessions and not on a quid pro quo basis,“ he said.
Amer Hamzah highlighted that giving or receiving political donations is not an offence in Malaysia.
“This was confirmed by the MACC in a statement made by then MACC deputy commissioner Datuk Seri Azam Baki who asserted that giving and receiving political donations is not an offence and that the MACC had no jurisdiction over affairs of political donation in Malaysia which was reported in the New Straits Times on Oct 7, 2017,“ he said.
Amer Hamzah affirmed that under the circumstances stated above, he believed that Attorney General Tan Sri Idrus Harun and the deputy public prosecutors who handled the case had examined, and considered the application that was filed to drop the charges.
Musa was first charged in November, 2018, with 35 counts under Section 11(a) of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act 2009 for accepting gratification by an agent where he allegedly received a total of US$63mil (around RM243mil) in Hong Kong and Singapore as an inducement for offering timber concessions in Sabah.
In March 2019, Musa was brought to court for the second time to face 16 charges of money laundering involving US$37.8mil and S$2.5mil, amounting to about RM160mil in total.
In October 2019, the prosecution dropped five out of the 35 charges of graft against Musa and made amendments to the existing 30 charges then relating to the dates, transactions and names of contractors.
