Former Federal Territories minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor, who faces two charges of receiving bribes totalling RM3 million, has failed to set aside an order for him to surrender his passport to the court.
This followed a unanimous decision by a three-man bench of the Court of Appeal today to dismiss Tengku Adnan’s appeal against the decision by Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali on January 28.
Justice Umi Kalthum Abdul Majid, who lead the bench, said the panel was not persuaded that the high court judge had wrongly exercised his discretion in rejecting Tengku Adnan’s application.
“The judge had considered all relevant factors in exercising his discretion judiciously,” she said in delivering the decision.
The other judges on the bench were Harmindar Singh Dhaliwal and Lau Bee Lan.
The Putrajaya MP, who was present in court, was appealing against the high court ruling to dismiss his application to set aside the order for him to surrender his passport to the court by increasing the bail amount.
Nazlan upheld the decision of the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court in imposing bail of RM500,000 on Tengku Adnan, 69, and for him to surrender his passport to the court pending the disposal of his case.
In his application, Tengku Adnan also proposed for his bail to be increased from RM500,000 to RM1 million and that he was also prepared to report himself at the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) office every month, if needed.
Earlier, Tengku Adnan’s counsel, Tan Hock Chuan, submitted that the high court judge, in his judgment, inferred that his client was a flight risk.
“The judge is wrong. My client has no intention to flee as he wants to clear his name from the system. He has also obtained his passport temporarily twice and had returned it to the court. This shows that my client is not a flight risk,” he said.
Deputy public prosecutor Julia Ibrahim replied that the surrender of the passport was an important condition so that the trial goes on without any delay.
She said Tan was not able to show that Nazlan had wrongly exercised his discretion in delivering his judgment as the appellant could apply for his passport to be returned temporarily from time to time.
“I also submitted that the documents showing the dates of his meetings in Indonesia and his daughter’s school registration in Australia had been given in advance. So, (there is) no reason for the accused not to make applications earlier,” she said.
Last November 15, Tengku Adnan pleaded not guilty to a charge of receiving gratification of RM1 million for himself from a businessman, Tan Eng Boon, to raise the plot ratio of the site with development at Lot 228, Jalan Semarak, Kuala Lumpur, on December 27, 2013.
He also faces an alternative charge where, in his capacity as minister, he is alleged to have received RM1 million from Tan.
On December 12, he was also charged as a public servant with receiving valuables amounting to RM2 million from Chai Kin Kong.