KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 20): The corruption case against Kinabatangan MP Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin and his wife Datin Seri Zizie Izette A Samad — who are jointly charged with receiving RM2.8 million in bribes — has been fixed for hearing before the Sessions Court starting on Jan 2, 2020.
Sessions Court judge Rozina Ayob today fixed over 20 days of court dates for the hearing.
Bung Moktar, who is also former Felcra Bhd chairman, and Zizie Izette have been charged for accepting RM2.8 million bribes to obtain approval for Felcra to invest RM150 million in Public Mutual Bhd Unit Trust.
On Aug 9, High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali dismissed the prosecution's application, made by deputy public prosecutor Allan Suman Pillai, to transfer the case to the High Court.
The decision was also supported by the defence, led by lawyers Datuk K Kumaraendran and M Athimulan.
On May 3, Bung Moktar, 60, pleaded not guilty to three counts of receiving the amount in three different transactions of RM2.2 million, RM262,500 and RM337,500 at Public Bank Taman Melawati, between June 12 and June 19, 2015.
According to the charges, Bung Moktar, then Felcra non-executive chairman, was accused of taking bribes from Public Mutual's investment agent Madhi Abdul Hamid, 38, through Zizie Izette, 40.
Zizie Izette is charged for abetting Bung Moktar, to which she also pleaded not guilty.
Bung Moktar was accused of taking the bribes as a reward for getting approval from the Minister of Finance II for Felcra to make a RM150 million investment in Public Mutual unit trust products.
If convicted, the duo stand to face a maximum of 20 years in jail and a minimum fine of RM10,000 or five times the amount of graft received.