KUALA LUMPUR – Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi is a generous philanthropist who never checked the sum of money he donated to those in need, a witness told the high court here in the former deputy prime minister’s corruption trial.
Datuk Fadzlette Othman Merican Idris Merican, who is Zahid’s former press secretary and a defence witness, said her former boss had never denied anyone’s request for aid.
“I have known and worked under Datuk Seri Zahid, I noticed that he is a very generous and charitable person. He has never denied any request for aid.
“He never checked on the donated amount and would often directly provide to the person in need. There was even an incident when he gave out a donation, then he asked me ‘How much did I give ya?’” Fadzlette told the court. Zahid is being tried for 47 graft charges involving alleged misappropriation of funds from the Yayasan Akalbudi charity foundation.
Fadzlette, who has served Zahid from 2011 to 2018 as his media director while he was defence minister as well as deputy prime minister, is still his media officer in his current capacity as Umno president.
She said the type of aid requests Zahid received were from sports clubs, media welfare associations, local communities for the repair of mosques and tahfiz schools.
She said Zahid never publicised his donations and did not want any signs or notices to that effect.
The court, presided by judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah, today allowed portions of Fadzlette’s witness statement that the prosecution had wanted expunged.
The prosecution had objected to certain paragraphs in Fadzlette’s statement, stating that those parts were aimed at damaging the credibility of the prosecution’s star witness, Mazlina Mazlan @ Ramly, who was Zahid’s former principal private secretary.
Fadzlette, in her testimony, said Mazlina was someone who “does not respect” the chain of command and worked “in silo”.
Mazlina would also disobey a direct order, despite being of an inferior military rank, and acted as if only Zahid could tell her what to do, she said.
Fadzlette also testified that Zahid had even previously ordered her to supervise Mazlina after she had allegedly mishandled payments from Zahid’s personal accounts.
Fadzlette also stated she had been aware that Mazlina had sole possession of Zahid’s signature stamp, used for stamping certificates and greeting cards.
In Zahid’s previous testimonies, he had said that Mazlina was “unprofessional” and “incompetent” in handling his personal payments.
Mazlina was previously tasked with managing Zahid’s personal account and that of Yayasan Akalbudi.
Zahid also claimed that he had to pay for the alleged “carelessness” of others, including Mazlina, who admitted in court that she had made several mistakes when managing both accounts for Zahid.
Mazlina, who is the prosecution’s star witness, had testified that she was negligent in making payments which exceeded the amount required for Zahid’s credit cards using the foundation’s cheques.
Zahid, 69, is facing 47 charges – 12 charges of criminal breach of trust, eight charges of corruption, and 27 charges of money laundering – involving tens of millions of ringgit belonging to Yayasan Akalbudi. – The Vibes, September 21, 2022
