KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 12): The High Court today postponed the hearing of Bank Negara Malaysia's appeal against the acquittal of former Sime Bank CEO Datuk Ismail Zakaria.

High Court Judge Datuk Kamardin Hashim postponed hearing for the case to January 14, 2015 as Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Syed Faisal Syed Amir was unwell.

The case has been going on almost 15 years since Ismail was charged in 1999 for approving four credit facilities of RM59 million, RM50 million, RM40 million and RM26 million to Everise Capital Sdn Bhd.

Bank Negara is appealing the Sessions Court's decision of Sept 12, 2011 which acquitted Ismail of four charges of acting beyond his authority in approving the credit facilities totaling RM175 million to Everise Capital.

Bank Negara alleged that Ismail had committed the offence between September 20 and October 21 1997.

Ismail was charged under Section 65(1) of the Banking and Financial Institutions Act (Bafia) 1989 and is punishable under Section 103(1)(a) of the Act.

If convicted, an offender may face jail terms of up to five years or a maximum fine of RM5 million, or both.

Subsequently, Ismail was also freed from four alternative criminal breach of trust charges over the same funds.

Today Ismail's counsel Kitson Foong told the press that his side had no objection to the postponement. Foong said all written submissions for the matter had already been made to the court.

This year alone, Bank Negara's appeal had hit a few snags.

On May 26, High Court Judge Datuk Azman Husin allowed Ismail's application to strike out Bank Negara's appeal after the prosecution failed to turn up at the court for the matter.

Bank Negara then filed an application to reinstate its appeal. Among others, the central bank stated that the merits of the case had yet to be heard.

This application was once again rejected by Azman due to the prosecution's failure to turn up at court on the date set earlier.

This was despite notices sent out by the court.

Azman, however, said the prosecution could appeal to the Court of Appeal.

The Court of Appeal granted the appeal and agreed with DPP Syed Faisal that there was genuine mistake for failing to turn up at the High Court on the specific date.

The Court of Appeal had subsequently referred the matter back to the High Court.