Former Sabah Land Development Board (SLDB) general manager George @ Juaari Majid, 63, and plantation owner How Kim San, 55, pleaded not guilty after being produced before judge Abu Bakar Abdul Manap on Tuesday.
George, represented by counsel Erveana Ansari, was accused of approving the RM9mil payment to How in four transactions between March 22 and Aug 14, 2013.
He was accused of approving the payment for 164ha of land at Kampung Babason in Sook at Keningau district, and compensation for the crops without the approval of the SLDB board of directors and the state Finance Ministry.
George, who was charged under Section 409 of the Penal Code, was alleged to have known that the land in question was owned by the state government.
How, represented by counsel Sugumar Balakrishnan, was charged under Section 109 of the Penal Code. He was accused of abetting George.
Court judge Abu Bakar Abdul Manat allowed George and How to be released on a RM100,000 bail each.
He said the amount was reasonable as bail was usually set at 10% of the total amount involved under the charge.
Abu Bakar also ordered the two of them to surrender their passports to the court.
He fixed Oct 27 for the next mention date of the case.
Earlier, Deputy Public Prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) proposed that the bail be set at RM500,000 for the duo respectively.
Erveana and Sugumar, however, objected to the amount, saying that the amount was excessive.
No comments:
Post a Comment