Donations are bribery if given based on position, says Perlis mufti

Perlis mufti Datuk Dr Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin says if donations are given to someone based on their positions, it may be considered as bribery. – The Malaysian Insider filepic, August 4, 2015.

Donations received by a person in power can be considered bribery if it was given based on the position held, Perlis mufti Datuk Dr Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin said today.

In a Facebook posting today, Asri said that the individual receiving the money "must reflect" if the donation was given based on the position held.

"If there is a connection to the position and it will influence his actions and his integrity, then it is bribery."

Asri, however, said that if the donation had nothing to do with the position held and the donor did not expect "anything in return", it can be considered as a "gift from a friend".

His post come after the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) yesterday said that RM2.6 billion in Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's personal accounts came from political donations.

Previously, The Wall Street Journal had said the source of the money was unclear and government investigation did not detail what happened to the money in Najib's accounts.

The prime minister never explicitly denied receiving the money despite threatening to sue WSJ, before MACC announced the result of their probe on Najib's accounts yesterday.

A couple of Najib's Cabinet members had previously said that there is nothing wrong in money being funnelled into Najib's personal accounts as he had the capacity to be a trustee for Umno, of which he is president.

- TMI