Court allows temporary release of Bung Moktar’s passport

KUALA LUMPUR: The Sessions Court here has granted Kinabatangan MP Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin temporary release of his passport to go to Saudi Arabia for official business, according to his lawyer Teh See Khoon.

“Yesterday (Nov 9), the court (Judge Rozina Ayob) allowed the release of Bung Moktar’s passport from Nov 10 to 22, and he has to return the passport to the court on Nov 22. The application to obtain the passport was made as our client has official business in Saudi Arabia,” he told reporters when contacted yesterday.

He added that the prosecution did not object to the application and that his client’s trial would resume on Nov 26. On May 3, 2019, Bung Moktar, 62, pleaded not guilty to two charges of accepting bribes amounting to RM2.2 million and RM262,500 respectively, as an inducement to obtain Felcra’s approval to invest RM150 million in Public Mutual unit trusts.

Bung Moktar, who was the non-executive chairman of Felcra at the time, was accused of accepting bribes, through his wife Datin Seri Zizie Izette A. Samad, from Public Mutual investment agent Madhi Abdul Hamid, 38, at Public Bank’s Taman Melawati branch here between 12.30pm and 5pm on June 12, 2015.

He also pleaded not guilty to accepting a cash bribe of RM335,500 for himself from another Public Mutual investment agent Norlaili Ahmad Mokhtar, 42, under the name of Zizie Izette, for the same purpose and at the same place on June 19, 2015.

Zizie Izette also pleaded not guilty to three charges of abetting her husband over the matter.—