Friday October 16, 2009
‘I didn’t force PKR man to accept money’
IPOH: A businessman told a corruption trial that he did not force RM9,000 on a former Perak Tengah district councillor in exchange for help to get a project in Seri Iskandar.
Mohamad Imran Abdullah, 34, whose testimony was based on a video recording shown in the Sessions Court here yesterday, said PKR politician Usaili Alias had not pushed away the money handed over to him on Aug 11, 2008.
Mohamad Imran, who acted as the agent provocateur for the then Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA), said he had recorded the transaction at the Excelsior Hotel coffee house here with a pinhole camera given to him by officials from the agency.
“I took out RM9,000 from my briefcase and counted the money into stacks of RM1,000 before handing it to Usaili.
“He did not refuse the money and I did not force him to accept it,” Mohamad Imran said.
He added that ACA officer Norliza Musa, who went undercover as his girlfriend, Usaili’s wife and Perak Development Corporation technician Ruslan Sahat were also present at the time.
Mohamad Imran was testifying against Usaili, 56, who with former PKR exco members Mohd Osman Mohd Jailu, 57, and Jamaluddin Mohd Radzi, 52, former Perak Tengah district councillor Zul Hassan, 45, and businessman Fairul Azrim Ismail, 31, face various corruption charges over the proposed multi-million ringgit development project.
The offences were allegedly committed by them to help Mohamad Imran obtain the project.
Ruslan was previously charged along with the five accused but the charges against him were dropped following his death in August.
Earlier, the court watched from the same recording how Mohamad Imran handed over RM1,400 to Ruslan before Usaili and his wife arrived at the coffee house.
“The video shows me counting the money and handing it over to Ruslan.
“He put the money in his shirt pocket,” Mohamad Imran testified.
The court was shown a total of four video recordings during yesterday’s trial.
According to Mohamad Imran, the first recording was taken during a meeting with Ruslan at the same hotel on Aug 6, 2008, while the second was of their meeting at the First Coffee House two days later.
Both recordings were made using pinhole cameras.
The third recording, made using a video camera from the ACA, was of a site visit at the location of the proposed project with Ruslan, Usaili and Zul on Aug 10, 2008.
Mohamad Imran also told the court he handed over RM1,000 to Usaili during the site visit.
However, he had failed to catch it on tape as he was holding the video camera at the time.
The hearing before Judge Azhaniz Teh Azman Teh continues on Tuesday.
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