Mara officer pleads not guilty to bribery
KUALA LUMPUR: A Majlis Amanah Rakyat (Mara) chief assistant director was charged with two counts of agreeing to accept and accepting an RM3,000 bribe to extend a shop lot leasing contract.
Azmi Umar, 42, pleaded not guilty to the charges before Sessions Court judge Rozina Ayob.
On the first and second counts, Azmi was charged, as a government agent, with agreeing to accept and having accepted RM3,000 from trader Sarabano Noor Mohamed, 44.
The money was purportedly an inducement for the Mara Panel Committee to approve an extension of a leasing contract, which had expired on June 30, 2014, for Lot No. G12 and G13 at Anggerik Mall in Shah Alam, Selangor.
Azmi, who is attached to the Mara headquarters here, allegedly committed the offences at J.W. Marriott Hotel in Bukit Bintang here between 10.45am and 12.45pm on Aug 29, 2014.
Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) deputy public prosecutor Abdul Rashid Sulaiman proposed a RM20,000 bail and for the accused to report to the MACC office once a month until the disposal of the case.
In pleading for lower bail, the accused’s counsel, A.S. Dhaliwal, said his client had been cooperating since the case was investigated in 2014.
The court set RM10,000 bail in one surety and ordered the accused to surrender his passport to the court.
The case will be up for mention on Nov 2.