Court fixes Oct 20 to decide on applications to strike out Peter Anthony corruption charges


(File pic) The Kota Kinabalu Sessions Court today fixed Oct 20 to decide on applications to strike out charges against incumbent Sabah Infrastructure Development minister, Datuk Peter Anthony (centre). Photo by MALAI ROSMAH TUAH/NSTP

(File pic) The Kota Kinabalu Sessions Court today fixed Oct 20 to decide on applications to strike out charges against incumbent Sabah Infrastructure Development minister, Datuk Peter Anthony (centre). Photo by MALAI ROSMAH TUAH/NSTP

KOTA KINABALU: The Kota Kinabalu Sessions Court today fixed Oct 20 to decide on applications to strike out charges against incumbent Sabah Infrastructure Development minister, Datuk Peter Anthony.

The two applications, filed by Peter's counsel team, involve five money laundering and abetment charges.

Deputy public prosecutor Gan Peng Kun said the prosecution had just received the applications from Peter's counsel yesterday.

"The prosecution needs at least three weeks to reply to the affidavit, and it was served to the state DPP," he said before Sessions Court judge Abu Bakar Manat.

Gan said today was fixed for the pre-trial case management for document submission.

The prosecution had served Peter and another accused, Michael Ubu, about 80 per cent of documents, and needs another two months to serve the remaining documents.

Abu Bakar also agreed that both accused will be jointly tried for all charges; and fixed Oct 7 for clarification of issues and further submissions, if any.

Peter, who is also Parti Warisan Sabah vice-president, is represented by Datuk Douglas Lind, Martin Tommy, Luke Ressa Balang and Dominic Chew; while Michael's counsels are Zahir Shah and Angela Ubu.

Both were present at the court.

In June, Peter was charged with five counts of money laundering involving RM8.75 million between 2014 and 2016.

In the same month, he was charged with abetment with Michael over the embezzlement of over RM15.5 million, involving land deals linked to the Rubber Industry Smallholders Development Authority (Risda), between 2014 and 2015.

Michael, a 63-year-old lawyer, pleaded not guilty in June to three counts of money laundering and criminal breach of trust (CBT) amounting to millions of ringgit in a Risda land deal.

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