KUALA LUMPUR: A retired high- ranking army officer from the Defence Ministry was discharged and acquitted of corruption charges linked to the appointment of a company through direct negotiation for an electronic warfare system maintenance and support services project five years ago.
Sessions Court judge Suzana Hussin ordered the release of Lieutenant-Colonel (Rtd) Che Ahmad Idris after ruling that the defence had raised a reasonable doubt at the end of its case.
She said this after studying written submissions and evidence of defence witnesses.
"The court finds the defence had debunked the prosecution's case. The court finds that the prosecution has failed to prove a case beyond reasonable doubt on all charges against the accused.
"Therefore, the court discharges and acquits the accused on all five charges."
She ordered the bail sum of RM95,000 and his passport to be returned to him.
Eighteen prosecution witnesses and 13 defence witnesses, including the accused, testified in the trial, which began on Aug 27, 2021.
On the first count, Che Ahmad, who was then the ministry's Strategic Cyber Warfare Defence Intelligence Division chief, was charged with agreeing to receive a RM500,000 bribe from FEHM Entity (FEHM Entity) Sdn Bhd managing director Elias Jemadi Tajudin.
This was allegedly to propose the appointment of the company through direct negotiation for the system under the ministry's staff intelligence division.
On the second to fifth charges, he was accused of receiving RM130,000 bribes from Elias for the same purposes.
He was accused of committing the offences at the ministry's Tun Osman Jewa housing complex on Jalan Padang Tembak between September 2019 and April 2020.
Deputy public prosecutor Muhammad Asraf Mohamed Tahir prosecuted while lawyer Gooi Soon Seng appeared for Che Ahmad.