Don pleads not guilty to nine graft charges
BUTTERWORTH: A Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) lecturer pleaded not guilty at a Sessions Court here to nine charges of abuse of power to obtain gratification for his sibling.
Prof Badaruddin Mohamed, 53, claimed trial in three separate cases with three charges under each case, as they were read out to him before Judge Nizam Zakaria.
In the first case, Badaruddin was charged with three counts of using his position as the then director of the Strategic Communications office at the university to benefit his brother Mustafa Kamal Mohamed by approving his brother’s company MK Urusniaga (M) Sdn Bhd as the supplier for various goods required by USM, between March 3 and March 10, 2012, with the total cost of RM101,072.
In the second case, he was charged with three counts of using his position as the then director of the Strategic Communications office as well as the head of the Sustainable Tourism Research Cluster at the same university, to benefit Mustafa Kamal by approving MK Urusniaga as the supplier for various goods, between Sept 5, 2011, and Nov 23, 2012, totalling RM30,503.
In the third case, Prof Badaruddin was charged with three counts of using his position as the then director of the Strategic Communications office as well as the head of the Sustainable Tourism Research Cluster at the same university, to benefit Mustafa Kamal by approving MK Urusniaga as the supplier for various goods, between May 14 and July 10, 2012, amounting to RM28,588.
Deputy public prosecutor Amer Abu Bakar Abdullah requested for bail to be set at RM10,000 for each charge amounting to RM90,000.
Prof Badaruddin’s lawyer Rahmatullah Baharudeen requested for lighter bail to be imposed saying that his client has four children of which three are still schoolgoing.
Judge Nizam granted bail at RM15,000 with two sureties for the first case, RM4,500 with one surety for the second case and RM5,000 with one surety for the third case and set Nov 29 for case management.
Badaruddin posted bail.