KUALA LUMPUR: Sayed Amir Muzzakkir Al Sayed Mohamad, a former political secretary to ex-Home Minister Hamzah Zainudin was on Thursday charged at a Kuala Lumpur court with accepting a bribe of RM350,000.
Sayed Amir claimed trial on two charges: receiving money to help a company win a contract to maintain police equipment worth more than RM381 million.
The 41-year-old was accused of receiving the money from Nexuscorp Group Sdn Bhd managing director Wan Azhar Mohamed Yusof.
According to the charges framed under section 16(a)(A) of the MACC Act of 2009, the money was an inducement to help the company secure the maintenance and supply of equipment for the infrastructure, server, software and radio of Rampnet users.
Sayed Amir allegedly committed the offence between December 4 and 16, 2020 at Yayasan Tanah Aku’s office in Solaris Dutamas, Publika, Kuala Lumpur.
The accused now faces a maximum prison sentence of 20 years and a fine of not less than five times the amount of the alleged bribe or RM10,000, whichever is greater.
Court Grants RM60k Bail
In open-court proceedings, deputy public prosecutor Zander Lim requested the court to set bail at RM100,000 as collateral and for the accused to surrender his passport to the court and report to the nearest MACC office once in a month. He also requested the court to order the accused not to disturb the prosecution witnesses.
The accused will also be arraigned on Friday at the Shah Alam Sessions Court, Lim added.
However, defence lawyer Md Yunos Shariff argued for a lower bail as Sayed Amir is not a flight risk, and cooperated with the MACC during the investigation and even appeared in court today.
Judge Rozina Ayob granted bail of RM60,000 and ordered him to surrender his passport as part of the bail conditions. The lower court also fixed the date of July 12 for mention.
