KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 20 — A witness told the Sessions Court today that Sayed Amir Muzzakkir Al Sayed Mohamad, who was then political secretary to a former Home Minister, had asked him for a portion of the RM19 million consultancy fee he received from a Polis Diraja Malaysia (PDRM) project for political purposes.

Al Khairi Group Berhad managing director Datuk Seri Mohd Khairi Mat Jahya, 43, testified during examination-in-chief by deputy public prosecutor (DPP) Atirah Mohd Azuarizanuddin in the trial of Sayed Amir Muzzakkir, who faces three corruption charges involving RM350,000.

“Frankly, I never agreed to give Sayed anything he asked for. His inquiries at the meeting were aimed at securing ‘a portion’ if possible, for political ends,” said the 15th prosecution witness, confirming that the “portion” referred to a cut of the RM19 million consultancy fee for the PDRM project.

In his witness statement yesterday, Mohd Khairi said that in mid-April 2020, Sayed Amir Muzzakkir contacted him and informed him of a meeting with Nexuscorpgroup Sdn Bhd’s managing director Wan Azhar Mohamed Yusof at the company’s office.

He said the accused also stressed that they must discuss the amount he (Sayed Amir Muzzakkir) would receive if the company won the PDRM tender for the Maintenance and Supply of Spare Parts for Infrastructure Equipment, Servers, Software and RMPNet System Radio Users.

Mohd Khairi added that Sayed Amir Muzzakkir had also sought political funding from him, citing his introduction to Nexuscorpgroup and the then Home Minister, Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin.

When asked by Atirah why he did not give Sayed a portion of the RM19 million, Mohd Khairi replied: “We had no project details, no documents, no profile, and no background at that time. I could not simply agree based on verbal discussions alone.

Mohd Khairi said Wan Azhar then requested a dummy invoice for RM350,000, but he did not know the purpose for it.

“I prepared it because I did not want Wan Azhar to withhold the balance payment. I did not want to refuse his request. The dummy invoice amount he asked for was RM350,000,” he testified.

In his witness statement, Mohd Khairi said he was shocked that Wan Azhar had paid RM350,000 to Sayed Amir Muzzakkir, as he himself had never promised the accused a cut, despite the accused allegedly introducing him to Wan Azhar and Hamzah for the project.

“Wan Azhar then instructed me to prepare and issue an invoice from my company to make the RM350,000 payment look legal. Wan Azhar also told me he had to do it because he was under constant pressure from Sayed,” he said.

During cross-examination by defence counsel Datuk Yaacob Md Sam, Mohd Khairi agreed that he had never promised Sayed Amir Muzzakkir any payment for his appointment as an advisor to Nexuscorpgroup.

However, he disagreed with counsel’s suggestion that the RM350,000 paid by Wan Azhar to Sayed was part of the consultancy fee.

On May 23, 2024, Sayed Amir Muzzakkir, 43, was charged with two counts of accepting RM350,000 in bribes from Wan Azhar Mohamed Yusof as an inducement for helping Nexuscorpgroup secure the RMPNet tender for PDRM, valued at RM381,112,042.44.

The offences allegedly took place at the Yayasan Tanah Aku office in Solaris Dutamas here, on December 4 and 16, 2020.

Sayed Amir Muzzakkir was also charged with soliciting a RM350,000 bribe from the same individual for the same purpose at Nexuscorpgroup Sdn Bhd’s office in Shah Alam in early December 2020.

The charges were brought under Section 16(a)(A) of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act 2009, which provides for a maximum prison sentence of 20 years and a fine of not less than five times the value of the bribe or RM10,000, whichever is higher, upon conviction.

The trial before Judge Rosli Ahmad resumes tomorrow. — Bernama