KUALA LUMPUR: Two senior Mara Corporation Sdn Bhd (Mara Corp) officers were charged with accepting more than RM40,000 in graft at the Sessions Court here today.
The accused, Noor Irwan Marmin, 44, and Rizal Abdul Ghani, 44, pleaded not guilty when the charge was read to them separately before judge Suzana Hussin.
According to the charge sheet, Noor Irwan was accused of misusing his position as Mara Corp's acting group chief executive officer to approve an internal memo on a monthly acting allowance worth RM46,281.75.
The offence was allegedly committed between Sept 15 last year and January 20, 2022.
Rizal, meanwhile, was accused of misusing his position as the group's corporate finance director to approve the same allowance, worth RM40,875, within the same timeframe.
They were charged under Section 23 (1) of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act 2009, which carries a maximum 20 years' imprisonment and a RM10,000 fine, or five times the amount of sum embezzled, whichever is higher.
Deputy public prosecutors A Kalai Vani and Nurul Atiqah Mohamad Alias appeared for the prosecution, while counsel Mohd Ozier Farhan Mohd Khanafeh represented Noor Irwan.
Rizal was not represented.
Both prosecutors asked for no bail to be given to the accused, as their charges were under non-bailable offences.
"In determining whether to allow bail to be granted to the accused, the court must use its discretion judiciously, while taking into account factors involved.
"Both the accused have no right to be released on bail, as it is not an automatic right of the accused of such an offence," said Nurul Atiqah.
However, she said, the prosecution recommended that the bail value decided by the court must reflect the gravity and seriousness of the charges, against the accused.
Mohd Ozier, in pleading for minimum bail for his client, said his client needed to support his family and earned only RM3,000 a month.
Judge Suzana Hussin set bail at RM45,000 bail for Noor Izwan and RM40,000 for Rizal.
The court also fixed Aug 23 for mention.
It was reported on Feb 11 that five Majlis Amanah Rakyat (Mara) officials linked to integrity and abuse of power issues involving Mara Corp had been summoned to give their statements at the MACC headquarters.
They were among 17 who had been identified to assist in the investigation into the case.
MACC previously raided Mara and Mara Corp headquarters, as well as a corporate secretary company, with the agency confiscating documents consisting of proposal papers and minutes of board meetings, financial documents and payroll, as well as documents concerning human resources.