FORMER Sabah Infrastructure Minister Datuk Peter Anthony will be sent to jail immediately after losing his final appeal to set aside his guilty conviction for forging a letter from the office of the Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) vice-chancellor for fraudulent purposes 11 years ago.
The Putrajaya Court of Appeal denied his appeal to set aside a three-year prison term, and a RM50,000 fine for the offence in 2014.
A three-member panel of Court of Appeal judges comprising Datuk Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim, Datuk Mohamed Zaini Mazlan, and Datuk Azmi Ariffin delivered their unanimous decision today to dismiss Peter's appeal to overturn the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court decision in 2022.
Zaidi, who chaired the bench, also issued a committal order for Peter to begin his jail term, effective today.
Under the law, the Melalap assemblyperson is set to lose his state seat, and would not be eligible to contest in the upcoming Sabah state polls this year.
Peter, 54, was also fined RM50,000 which he paid.
He was charged in 2015 for forging the title in a letter of support to secure the contract for his company, Syarikat Asli Jati Sdn Bhd. The contract had already been awarded to REMT Utama Sdn Bhd (REMT) via open tender.
Peter’s company had already been doing work on another project for the university.
The appellate court concurred with the Session’s Court’s decision, primarily that there was circumstantial evidence to show that Peter had indeed forged the said document for his benefit. - March 4, 2025
