A company managing director is seeking to nullify the graft charge against him involving the alleged offering of RM7.5 million bribes linked to then-communications and multimedia minister Annuar Musa.
Hydroshoppe managing director Abdul Hamid Shaikh Abdul Razak Shaikh (above), through his counsel from law firm Chetan Jethewani & Company, informed the Sessions Court in Kuala Lumpur about the preliminary objection against the charge.
On April 5 before criminal court judge Suzana Hussin, the accused claimed trial to the graft case of offering the bribes as inducement for Annuar to expedite a proposed sale of shares and a concession takeover from Menara Kuala Lumpur Sdn Bhd.
According to a copy of the accused’s letter to the court which was emailed two days ago, Abdul Hamid’s legal team contended that the charge under Section 16(b)(B) of the MACC Act 2009 is defective, due to the charge not disclosing an offence under the provision.
“Therefore, the charge against our client fails to show any offence under the law and causing it to be a groundless charge,” the counsel contended.
Specific date
The legal team also contended that the charge is defective for not disclosing a specific date for the alleged offence, which is a violation of Sections 152, 153 and 154 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC).
Under the law, any successful preliminary objection over an alleged groundless charge would lead to the criminal court striking out the criminal charge against the accused.
During the mention of the case today, Suzana set July 18 for clarification and decision on Abdul Hamid’s preliminary objection. She also directed the defence team to file its written submissions by June 19 and for the prosecution to file any reply by July 3.
Prosecution was conducted by deputy public prosecutor Mahadi Abdun Jumaat.
According to the charge, Abdul Hamid, whose company had taken over the concession for the maintenance of the KL Tower, was accused of offering RM500,000 a year for 15 years to Annuar through MyCreative Ventures director Tan Ser Lay.
He was accused of making the offer between July and August last year at the Communication and Multimedia Ministry in Putrajaya.
The criminal court had released Abdul Hamid on RM50,000 bail and ordered him to report to the MACC headquarters in Kuala Lumpur once every two months, beginning May until the disposal of the case. He was also ordered to surrender his passport to the court.
Previously, the MACC was reported to have investigated allegations over the suspicious sale of shares and the takeover of KL Tower maintenance concession from Menara Kuala Lumpur, a company wholly owned by Telekom Malaysia.
It was also reported that Telekom Malaysia said it decided not to continue holding the concession to manage the KL Tower, so as to focus on its core business, which is telecommunication services.
Meanwhile, before another Sessions Court in Kuala Lumpur, judge Rozina Ayob set July 5 to hear two separate applications linked to a similar corruption charge against Hydroshoppe under Section 17(A)(1)(a) of the MACC Act.
One application is by the prosecution to transfer the graft case against Hydroshoppe from Rozina’s court to Suzana’s court so that the latter judge could jointly hear the company’s charge with Abdul Hamid’s case.
The other application is by Hydroshoppe’s defence team (which is the same as that of Abdul Hamid) for the case to be stayed pending disposal of the graft case against Abdul Hamid.
Prosecution in the case against the company was also conducted by Mahadi. - Mkini
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.