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Jamil Khir pleads not guilty to RM860.3m Tabung Haji misappropriation charges
Former religious affairs minister Jamil Khir Baharom has pleaded not guilty to three charges of dishonestly causing Tabung Haji to dispose of RM860.3 million of its funds.
He made the plea at the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court before judge Rosli Ahmad this morning...
Former religious affairs minister Jamil Khir Baharom has pleaded not guilty to three charges of dishonestly causing Tabung Haji to dispose of RM860.3 million of its funds.
He made the plea at the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court before judge Rosli Ahmad this morning.
According to the charge sheets, Jamil allegedly caused Tabung Haji to dispose of the funds to Al-Rawda Investment for Real Estate Development and Projects Management Co Ltd on three separate occasions.
He was charged under Section 403 of the Penal Code, which punishes those who "dishonestly misappropriates, or converts to his own use, or causes any other person to dispose of, any property".
The charges carry a jail term of up to five years, caning and a fine.
According to the charges, the three disposals were made on April 3, 2015, Dec 13, 2016 and Aug 17, 2017 involving 44.17 million Saudi riyals (RM42.94 million), 250 million Saudi riyals and 471.8 million Saudi riyals, respectively.
He was alleged to have committed the offence at the religious minister’s office on those dates.
/file/attachments/orphans/JamirKhirsdfdf_423962.jpg "Former religious affairs minister Jamil Khir pleads not guilty to RM860.3m Tabung Haji misappropriation charges 140926")
RM300k bail
Deputy public prosecutor Farah Ezlin Yusop Khan suggested that the court set RM1 million bail for Jamil and confiscate his passport.
However, Jamil’s lawyer Hisyam Teh Pok Teik pleaded for a lower global bail amount of RM300,000, given that his client is only relying on his ministerial and retired army pensions.
The court then fixed RM300,000 bail and confiscated his passport, as well as fixing Nov 5 for case management.
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Hisyam (above) told reporters after the proceedings that the prosecution will be supplying documents to them at the next date.
“We will study the documents carefully, diligently and put up a strong defence.”
Fourth to be charged
Previously, Jamil was detained by MACC for seven days between Sept 2 and 8 to assist the authorities’ investigations over the leasing of a Tabung Haji linked hotel in Saudi Arabia, as highlighted in the royal commission of inquiry report into the pilgrims’ funds.
Jamil was the fourth individual charged over Tabung Haji’s scandal following the publication of the RCI reports.
The other individuals were former Tabung Haji chairperson Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim, THP Bina Sdn Bhd’s former deputy general manager of construction Tengku Kamarolhisham Tengku Kamaruddin and the company’s former safety and health officer Nasahruddin Ahmad.
Tabung Haji’s former chief operating officer Adi Azuan Abdul Ghani was initially scheduled to face charges at Shah Alam Sessions Court on Sept 3. However, his proceedings have been moved to the 24th due to hospitalisation.
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Cabinet minister being charged especially the Religious Affairs Minister are major scandals in the country. People are asking why the government took so long to charge them.As we know an RCI report is just a lead, not a judge's ruling.If MACC just blindly slapped people with charges right after getting a report, that's what you call zero independence. MACC doing proper homework and passing solid proof to the AGC is literally standard procedure，especially when foreign investments are involved, which need takes extra time to track down. The PM or the MACC boss can't just call who gets charged，that’s 100% the AGC's power. At the end of the day, early or late doesn't matter，what is most important is making sure the corrupt person get locked up.
It appears that the intent of this new format is to work up an appetite for the previous one which, going by comments here, no subscriber other than the new kid(s) at the helm had a problem with. Time, which may not be on the side of commentating veterans, will tell if this is a progressive move or one which will send Malaysiakini back to the good old days when it was a struggling upstart desperate for subscribers.
Such a huge amount of RM860.3 million of the pilgrims and nations money on a Saudi investment? Did it do professional evaluations by professional firms from both Saudi and Malaysia? If not, the whole board and whoever resposible to regulate it should be held accountable and brought to book.
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