Zahid and Attorney General Allowed to Appeal Ruling on Yayasan Akalbudi Case

The Federal Court has granted Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and the Attorney General leave to appeal against a Court of Appeal ruling allowing the Malaysian Bar to pursue a judicial review over the discontinuation of Zahid’s Yayasan Akalbudi corruption case.

Zahid, Attorney General Get Green Light to Appeal Malaysian Bar Court Challenge

The Court of Appeal had on May 7 unanimously allowed the Malaysian Bar to challenge the Attorney General’s decision that led to a discharge not amounting to an acquittal (DNAA) for Zahid over 47 corruption charges involving Yayasan Akalbudi funds.

The Court of Appeal had found that the Bar’s challenge was not frivolous and raised arguable legal issues warranting a substantive hearing at the High Court.

The Federal Court’s decision allows Zahid and the Attorney General to challenge that ruling at the country’s highest court.

The appeal centres on legal questions surrounding whether the Attorney General’s prosecutorial discretion under Article 145(3) of the Federal Constitution can be subjected to judicial review and, if so, what legal threshold should apply. 

The Attorney General had previously filed an application raising these questions before the Federal Court. The Malaysian Bar’s judicial review concerns the decision to discontinue proceedings against Zahid in the 47-charge Yayasan Akalbudi case.