THE corruption trial of former deputy prime minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who is facing 40 charges over the Foreign Visa System (VLN), commenced last week.
This is the UMNO president’s second trial following the ongoing hearing at the Kuala Lumpur High Court in which he is facing 47 charges involving criminal breach of trust, corruption and money laundering linked to tens of millions of ringgit belonging to Yayasan Akalbudi.
In the VLN case, Ahmad Zahid pleaded not guilty to 33 charges of receiving bribes amounting to SGD13.56 mil from Ultra Kirana Sdn Bhd as an inducement for himself in his capacity as a civil servant, then as Home Minister, to extend the contract of the company as the operator of One-Stop Centre (OSC) in China and the VLN system as well as to maintain the agreement to supply VLN integrated system paraphernalia to the same company by the Home Ministry.
While the first day of the VLN trial had gone on without a hitch, it isn’t too far-fetched to wonder, given Zahid’s past ‘experience’ with court delays, if the current trial is bound to suffer from the same fate.
After all, who can forget the fact that Zahid’s Yayasan Akalbudi trial was infamously postponed a whopping 15 times since it began in November 2019 for a variety of reasons?
Some of those delays were beyond his control; the movement control order (MCO) implemented by the Government following a rise in COVID-19 cases had resulted in court trials – including Zahid’s – being vacated to avoid any congregation of masses.
As for the on-going VPN case, it will certainly be interesting to observe if history will repeat itself this time around. Are we bound to see multiple delays and postponements before justice can truly be served?
Well, the verdict is still up in the air, but for now, we can only wait and see how the trial unfolds in the coming weeks.
But as the aphorism goes, ‘Justice must not only be done, but must also be seen to be done’, and this dictum holds true, in every sense of the word, for both Zahid’s cases.
Guilty or otherwise, the accused deserves a swift end to their court cases. This is unless, of course, they have other sinister reasons or motives for having the trials delayed. – May 31, 2021
Photo credit: Yusof Mat Isa
