Suffian LP:

Hearing: March 21 To 25, 28 To 31, April 1 To 4 And 6, 1977

[1] This judgment, delivered with the consent of all concerned under s 42 of the Courts of Judicature Act, 1964, represents the view of my brother Tan Sri Wan Suleiman and my view. Our brother Tan Sri All Hassan unfortunately died on Friday, 27th May, without formally expressing any view. He had no time to finalise his view because prior to his death he had to go away to London for a month for medical treatment.

[2] This is an appeal by the accused from a decision of Raja Azlan Shah FJ (reported at [1977] 1 MLJ 15) convicting him on three charges as follows:

"First Charge: That you between February 22, 1972, and July 24, 1972, in your office at Kuala Lumpur, then in the State of Selangor, corruptly solicited for a political party, namely, United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), a gratification, to wit, two hundred and fifty thousand dollars ($250,000) from the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, Kuala Lumpur as an inducement to you, being a member of a public body, namely Government of the State of Selangot, to obtain the approval of the Executive Council of the Government of the State of Selangor in respect of an application of the said bank for alienation of a piece of State land held under TOL 6450 for the purpose of amalgamating the land applied for with Lots 76, 77 and 78, Section 11, Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur and to construct thereon a multi-storey building and that you thereby committed an offence punishable under s 3(a)(ii) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1961.

Second Charge: That you on or about August 16, 1972, at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Subang, in the State of Selangor, being a member of a public body, to wit, Mentri Besar Selangor, did accept from the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation a gratification, to wit, twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000) cash through one Haji Ahmad Razali bin Haji Mohd Ali as an inducement for your aiding in procuring the performance of an official act, to wit, to obtain the approval of the Selangor State Executive Council in respect of an application of the said bank for alienation of a piece of State land held under TOL 6450 for the purpose of amalgamating the land applied for with lots 76, 77 and 78, Section 11, Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur and to construct thereon a multi-storey building and that you thereby committed an offence punishable under section 9(b) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1961.

Third Charge: That you on or about March 27, 1973, in your office in Kuala Lumpur, then in the State of Selangor, being a member of a public body, to wit, Mentri Besar Selangor, did accept from the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, Kuala Lumpur, a gratification, to wit, two hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars ($225,000) cash as an inducement for your aiding in procuring the performance of an official act, to wit, to obtain the approval of the Selangor State Executive Council in respect of an application of the said bank for alienation of a piece of State land held under TOL 6450 for the purpose of amalgamating the land applied for with Lots 76, 77 and 78, Section 11, Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur and to construct thereon a multi-storey building and that you thereby committed an offence punishable under s 9(b) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1961." and sentencing the accused to one year's imprisonment on the first charge and two years on each of the second and third charges, the sentences to run concurrently.

[3] There is also a cross-appeal by the Public Prosecutor with which we shall deal in the proper place below.

[4] We shall deal with the appeal first.

Appeal

[5] The grounds of appeal may be divided into two parts.

[6] The first part relates to the constitutionality of s 418A of the Criminal Procedure Code, while the second part relates to the verdict itself which it is said is not supported by such evidence as was admissible.

[7] We shall deal with the first part first.

First