KOTA KINABALU: A Sabah civil servant has been slapped with 16 charges of accepting bribes amounting to RM45,000 over the past seven years.
Zulfikar Khomeini Asli, 44, pleaded not guilty after the charges were read out by the court interpreter before judge Jason Juga at the Special Corruption Court here on Wednesday (Jan 18).
In the first to fifth charge, the accused – who was the head of the enforcement unit of the State Sales Tax Enforcement Unit under the Internal Audit Division of the Sabah Finance Ministry – was accused of receiving a total RM20,000 in bribes banked into his account by a manager of a palm oil mill on Sept 20, 2016.
He had also allegedly failed to report the deposits to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).
For the sixth to 10th charges, he is alleged to have received a bribe of RM10,000, also through a bank account transaction, from a palm oil company manager on Jan 2, 2017.
As for the 11th to 16th charges, the accused – who is currently an officer in the state Rural Development Ministry – received RM15,000 from the palm oil company manager on Jan 3 and 7, 2017.
He was charged under Section 25 (1) of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act 2009 punishable under Section 25 (1) of the same Act.
If convicted, he faces imprisonment of up to 10 years, or a fine of not more than RM100,000, or both.
Syed Anwar Shariff Abdullah, counsel for the accused, requested bail of RM10,000 instead of the RM30,000 sought by the prosecution.
The court then set bail at RM25,000 and a deposit of RM10,000 with a local surety.
In addition, the accused must report to the Sabah MACC office every two months until disposal of the case and hand over his passport to the court.
Feb 15 has been set for case management.
