Court of Appeal sets aside engineer’s conviction

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PUTRAJAYA: A senior engineer walked free after the Court of Appeal ruled that there was a serious gap in the prosecution’s case against her.

The court held that the prosecution had failed to call the person who had prepared the two mileage claims vouchers, which were the key elements in the two corruption charges levelled at Salmah Sulaiman, 44, six years ago.

A three-man bench headed by Justice Datuk Azhar Mohamad ordered the 14-day jail term and RM10,000 fine for each charge against Salmah to be set aside.

He further ordered the RM20,000 fine paid by her earlier to be refunded.

Azhar said the panel was unanimous in their decision and agreed with the appellant’s counsel Karpal Singh that in criminal law practice, the maker should be called as prosecution witness when tendering such documents.

The two other panel members were Justice Datuk Mohd Zawawi Salleh and Datuk Linton Albert.

Earlier, Karpal Singh had argued that a prima facie case should not be established against Salmah, who was formerly attached to the Melaka State Health Department and urged the court to set aside the Sessions Court’s conviction and sentence which was upheld by the Melaka High Court.

Justice Azhar said the court disagreed with deputy public prosecutor Saiful Hazmi Saad of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) that the court should have taken into account other evidence in upholding the conviction and sentences.

Salmah broke-down in tears after the decision was read out.

Salmah, was charged for submitting mileage claims amounting to between RM6 and RM100 for Oct and RM4.20 to RM100 in November, 2006.

She allegedly committed the offences at the Melaka state health director’s office in Jalan Hang Tuah, on Feb 14, 2007.

Karpal Singh later told reporters, that Salmah could now return to work and was entitled to all back-dated wages and other perks since her suspension. — Bernama