KUALA LUMPUR: The prosecution in the graft trial of Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi took a swipe at the spending habits of the Umno president and his wife.

       Deputy public prosecutor Datuk Raja Rozela Raja Toran said their monthly credit card statements would show an extensive use for purchases at high street stores locally and around the world by Ahmad Zahid and his wife Datin Seri Hamidah Khamis.

       “One cannot help but wonder whether they had in mind the poor people of Malaysia when they shopped at Armani and Hermes,” she told the High Court here on Wednesday (Oct 13).

       Raja Rozela, making her submission on the issue of misappropriation at the end of the prosecution’s case in Ahmad Zahid's trial involving Yayasan Akalbudi (YAB) funds, acknowledged that the couple’s spending habits did not make up the legal issue in the case.

       She said the issue was that the accused “treated the monies as if they were his own” where 50 cheques were issued from YAB involving a total sum of RM13mil.

       Forty-three of the 50 cheques were payments for the credit cards between January 2014 and January 2016, she added.

       Raja Rozela further submitted there was ample evidence that several motor insurance policies and road tax for 20 motor vehicles had been bought and paid for using YAB funds.

       “The total amount involved was RM107,509.55 and none of these vehicles belonged to YAB.

       “The facts showed that at all material times, the registered vehicle owners were the accused and three others: Hamidah, BZ Motors and Juhari Janan,” she said.

       The prosecution also highlighted that a local football club became the beneficiary of YAB when it received a cheque of RM1.3mil and this was confirmed by Persatuan Bola Sepak Polis DiRaja Malaysia president Datuk Zul Hisham Zainal, who is also Ahmad Zahid’s son-in-law.

       Zul Hisham testified that the club had fallen into arrears in the payment of its players' wages and he had sought help from his father-in-law.

       Ahmad Zahid’s lawyer Hamidi Mohd Noh, meanwhile, had submitted that the RM1.3mil payment to the football club was to "eradicate poverty" among its players.

       Raja Rozela, however, refuted this and said that being a couple of months behind in paying wages did not constitute poverty among the players.

       “It does not make one poor. It does not make one destitute,” she said.

       She then told the court to forget about the football players for a while and to take a look at the civil servants.

       “The pay we receive is not extravagant. It is not that much.

       “By the first week of pay day, half of the room would probably qualify as poor.

       “Easily qualified to receive sumbangan (contributions) from YAB, courtesy of the accused,” she said in jest.

       Raja Rozela then provided the definition of poverty by the World Bank.

       “If we accept the definition of poverty by the World Bank, I do not see how a football club can fit in that definition.

       “We humbly submit that the PDRM football club does not qualify for money from YAB,” she added.

       Ahmad Zahid is facing 47 charges – 12 for criminal breach of trust (CBT), eight for corruption and 27 for money laundering – involving tens of millions of ringgit belonging to YAB.

       The hearing continues before Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah on Thursday (Oct 14).