KUALA LUMPUR: The former political secretary to opposition leader Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin was charged at the Sessions Court today with two counts of accepting gratification worth RM350,000 from a company managing director in December 2020.
Sayed Amir Muzzakkir Al Sayed Mohamad, 42, pleaded not guilty to the charges framed under Section 16(a)(A) of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act 2009 before judge Azura Alwi.
Sayed Amir, who stood in the dock, said he understood the charges.
"I want to be tried," he told the court.
He was accused of accepting RM100,000 and RM250,000 from Wan Azhar Mohamed Yusof, as the managing director of Nexuscorp Group Sdn Bhd, as inducement to assist the company to obtain a tender.
The said tender is for the police force's RMPNET maintenance services and spare parts supplies for infrastructure tools, servers, software, and user radio systems worth RM381,112,042.44.
He had allegedly committed the offences on Dec 4 and 16, 2020 at the office of Yayasan Tanah Aku in Solaris Dutamas.
The offences, punishable under Section 24(1) of the same Act, carries a maximum jail term of 20 years and fine not less than five times the amount of gratification or RM10,000; whichever is higher.
Deputy public prosecutor Zander Lim Wai Keong proposed a RM100,000 bail with one surety.
As additional conditions, he said the accused must surrender his passport to the court until case disposal and not harass prosecution witnesses, especially Wan Azhar.
In mitigation, defence counsel Md Yunos Shariff urged the court to impose a RM40,000 bail with one surety, describing the sum proposed by the prosecution as excessive.
"My client is not a flight risk and he had his property seized by MACC.
"He has given his cooperation with MACC and with one phone call, he is responsible enough to come and face the charges today.
"Moreover, he will also be charged at the Shah Alam Court tomorrow. He is committed to attend court proceedings and if he is given bail, it must be adhered to.
"It will be weird if he does not show up tomorrow when he is in court today," he said, adding that the issue of his client absconding was far-fetched and without basis.
Yunos said his client had received a notice to appear in the Shah Alam Court tomorrow and confirmed his attendance.
In reply, Lim said the offences committed by the accused were serious and the RM100,000 bail sum was reasonable to secure his attendance in court to answer the charges.
"The accused has one more charge to face in the Shah Alam court tomorrow. The risk to abscond by the accused still exists although he cooperated with MACC," he said.
Judge Azura set bail at RM60,000 with one surety and allowed the prosecution's additional conditions as well as reporting to Kuala Lumpur MACC office monthly.
"He must not contact or harass prosecution witnesses, especially Wan Azhar, physically or through any medium until case disposal," she ruled.
She set July 12 for mention.