Lawyer for ex-home minister’s aide questions witness over ‘commission’ references

 Sayed Amir Muzzakkir Al Sayed Mohamad’s counsel asserts that NXG managing director Wan Azhar Yusof intentionally used the term ‘commission’ instead of ‘advisory fee’ in his witness statement.

Sayed Amir Muzzakkir Al Sayed Mohamad (centre) faces three corruption charges in connection with a tender for maintenance services and the supply of spare parts for police equipment. (Bernama pic)

KUALA LUMPUR:

The defence for a political secretary to then home minister Hamzah Zainudin today questioned the key prosecution witness about the absence of any reference to an “advisory fee” in his witness statement, despite the term being used in a related project advisory agreement.

Counsel Yaacob Sam, representing Sayed Amir Muzzakkir Al Sayed Mohamad, noted that Nexuscorpgroup Sdn Bhd (NXG) managing director Wan Azhar Yusof’s witness statement used the word “commission” 35 times, while the agreement referred only to an “advisory fee”.

In his witness statement, Wan Azhar alleged that the project advisory agreement was drawn up to pay Sayed and businessman Khairi Mat Jahya a commission of 5% of the project value to help NXG secure a police equipment maintenance contract.

However, Wan Azhar disagreed during cross-examination that he had changed the term used in the agreement when preparing his witness statement.

Yaacob: Do you know that a provision under the Evidence Act prohibits altering words that are very clear in an agreement?

Wan Azhar: Perhaps.

Yaacob: I put it to you that you are trying to change the term and use the word “commission” to give it a different character from the term “advisory fee”.

Wan Azhar: I disagree.

Wan Azhar also disagreed that he had intentionally changed the term “advisory fee” to “commission” to justify an investigation against Sayed under Section 3 of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act 2009, which concerns soliciting or receiving gratification.

The defence also questioned Wan Azhar’s evidence after the prosecution asked 193 additional questions during his examination-in-chief.

Yaacob: Why wasn’t all this evidence produced during the preparation of your witness statement?

Wan Azhar: I don’t know.

Yaacob: Do you agree that if the evidence was important, it should have already been in your witness statement?

Wan Azhar: Whether it is important or not is not my decision.

Sayed was charged on May 23, 2024, with two counts of receiving RM350,000 in bribes from Wan Azhar as an inducement for helping Nexuscorpgroup secure the RMPNet tender for the police force, worth RM381,112,042.44.

The offences were allegedly committed at the office of Yayasan Tanah Aku in Solaris Dutamas at 4pm on Dec 4, 2020, and at 3.30pm on Dec 16, 2020.

He was also charged with soliciting a RM350,000 cash bribe from Wan Azhar for the same purpose at NXG’s office in the Section 7 industrial area in Shah Alam, Selangor, in early December 2020.

The charges were framed under Section 16(a)(A) of the MACC Act 2009 and are punishable under Section 24(1) of the same Act, which provides for up to 20 years’ imprisonment and a fine of not less than five times the amount or value of the bribe, or RM10,000, whichever is higher, upon conviction.

Deputy public prosecutor Hazel Tan appeared for the prosecution. The trial before sessions court judge Rosli Ahmad continues on Oct 7. - FMT