KOTA BARU: A Customs officer was charged at the Sessions Court today with 90 counts of accepting bribes amounting to RM84,800 to release cargo trucks without inspections for a period of seven consecutive years beginning 2017.
The accused Ahmad Emin Nazrul Ahmad, pleaded not guilty before judge Dazuki Ali.
Ahmad Emin as a Grade WK19 customs assistant stationed at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), was accused of receiving bribes totalling RM84,800 from Jehatis Jeeva who owned Syarikat Kalos Enterprise, as an inducement not to inspect the company's lorries carrying goods out of the KLIA Cargo terminal.
The 41-year-old was alleged to have received the money via online transfer from Jehatis' account.
The father of three was alleged to have committed the offence at the Maybank Bhd branch in Jalan Mahmood, Kota Baru, between July 20, 2017 to Sept 3, 2023.
The accused, who lives in Nilai, Negri Sembilan, received 90 transactions ranging from RM50 to RM4,100 from Jehati.
He was charged under Section 17(a) of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act 2009, which is punishable under Section 24(1) of the same act.
Under the act, the accused is liable to a jail term of up to 20 years and a fine five times the bribe amount upon conviction.
Deputy public prosecutor Mohd Afif Ali appeared for the prosecution while the accused was represented by lawyer Adhwa' Afiqah Mohd Azmi.
Dazuki allowed the accused to be released with RM20,000 bail with one surety.
He also ordered the accused to report to the MACC headquarters in Putrajaya once a month, to hand over his passport if he had not already and not to access computer data of the Customs Department.
He fixed July 21 for re-mention of the case.