This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on February 21, 2020
KUALA LUMPUR: A businessman, who secured contracts from the home ministry to process foreign visas, refuted in the High Court yesterday that payments he made to former deputy prime minister (DPM) and home minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi were bribes.
Azlan Shah Jeffril, 49, whose company Profound Radiance Sdn Bhd was appointed by the ministry to run and manage One Stop Centre’s (OSC) for foreign visa applicants in a few countries, testified that a sum of RM2 million that he had given to Ahmad Zahid personally was for charity work and political donation.
Azlan, who is the 38th prosecution witness in Ahmad Zahid’s corruption trial, said he handed over three cheques to Ahmad Zahid between 2017 and 2018 in the span of three visits to the then home minister.
Replying to defence counsel Datuk Ahmad Zaidi Zainal, Azlan said he did not agree with three of the charges against Ahmad Zahid.
These charges state that Ahmad Zahid received bribes from Azlan on Aug 3, 2017, Jan 9, 2018 and March 15, 2018 in different amounts accumulating to RM2 million.
“The charges state that I gave a bribe in return for contracts. I gave this contribution one-and-a-half years after I received the contract. I don’t agree with the charges. It implies that I bribed,” he said.
Azlan said that in late 2015 and 2016, his company was awarded contracts to start OSC operations for visa processing in Nepal and Pakistan.
He said the money he gave Ahmad Zahid could not be bribes for the contract as he already acquired the contract in 2016 and the cheques were given to Ahmad Zahid in 2017 and 2018.
“There was no cheques given to [Ahmad] Zahid before the OSC was given to us to manage in Pakistan and Nepal. I gave this money as a form of donation one-and-a-half years after I got the contract. I don’t agree with the charges implying that I bribed,” he said.
Azlan also testified that he made the cheques out to Lewis & Co and stated that in the cheque butts for each of the two cheques amounting to RM700,000 and RM300,000 respectively, he wrote that they were for the purposes of “charity” while in respect of the other cheque for the sum of RM1 million, he wrote “Political fund to TPM”.
“The RM1 million political donation cheque I wrote was to help the government of the day as it was nearing election season at that time,” he said, explaining that he wrote that cheque on Jan 3, 2018, just a day before meeting Ahmad Zahid briefly at a home ministry-organised event in Putrajaya.
Azlan testified that he handed over these cheques personally to Ahmad Zahid on three different occasions and that the former DPM had never once asked him for the money.
Earlier yesterday, former home ministry immigration division secretary Datuk Shahril Ismail testified that Profound Radiance was selected to run an OSC in Bangladesh from Feb 2, 2014, and that Ahmad Zahid subsequently heeded the ministry’s recommendation to cancel the company’s contract as it had not carried out any operations due to internal conflicts in the company.
Azlan also recounted how he personally wrote to then prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and Ahmad Zahid in 2015 to appeal the home ministry’s decision.
The ministry finally appointed Profound Radiance to operate the two separate OSCs in Nepal and Pakistan from July 1, 2016.
Ahmad Zahid, who is also the member of Parliament for Bagan Datuk, is facing 47 charges — 12 for criminal breach of trust, eight for bribery and 27 for money laundering — involving millions of ringgit belonging to a foundation, Yayasan Akalbudi.
Hearing before Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah continues on March 2.