Kota Kinabalu: A 44-year-old government servant was charged with 16 counts of receiving bribes amounting to RM45,000, seven years ago.
Zulfikar Khomeini Asli pleaded not guilty before Sessions Court Judge Jason Juga, to all the charges against him on Wednesday.
On the first to 16 counts, Zulfikar who was at that time the Head of the Sales Tax Enforcement Unit at the Internal Audit Section of Sabah State Finance Ministry, received the bribes of RM4,900, RM4,700, RM6,500, RM3,200, RM700, RM2,550, RM2,450, RM2,750, RM900, RM1,350, RM3,000, RM2,250, RM2,500, RM2,250, RM2,500 and RM2,500 from a manager of an oil palm company.
The charges stated that all the money was banked-in into Zulfikar’s bank account in which he had interest and that he allegedly failed to report bribery offences to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).
The offence under Section 25(1) of the MACC Act 2009 and punishable under Section 25(2) of the same Act carries a fine of up to RM100,000 or a jail term of up to 10 years, or both, on conviction.
The court set Feb 15 this year for pre-trial case management and released Zulfikar on RM25,000 bail with RM10,000 deposited in a local surety.
Zulfikar, who is currently working at the Rural Development Ministry, was also ordered to report to Sabah MACC’s office once in two months and his international passport, if any, to be impounded by the court until the disposal of his case.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Nurul Izzati Sapifee from MACC appeared for the prosecution while Zulfikar was represented by counsel Syed Anwar Shariff Abdullah.
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