KUALA LUMPUR FEB.3: Former Felda Chairman, Tan Sri Mohd Isa Abdul Samad has been sentenced to six years jail and fined RM15.45 million by the High Court here today after he was found guilty on nine charges of graft amounting to RM3.09 million.
The nine charges were in relation to the purchase of the Merdeka Palace Hotel & Suites (MPHS) in Kuching, Sarawak seven years ago.
The High Court Judge, Mohd. Nazlan Mohd Ghazali had made the decision after the defence had failed to raise reasonable doubts on the nine charges against Isa Samad.
However the court has ordered the jail sentence to run concurrently and that means Isa Samad serves a jail sentence only for six years. The court has also ordered that Isa Samad be jailed for 18 years in case he fails to pay the fine.
The Court had allowed Isa Samad who was also the former Menteri Besar of Negeri Sembilan not to serve his jail sentence and pay the fine until he makes an appeal. This goes with a condition that the amount of bail is raised from RM800, 000 to RM1.5 million and payment should be made by 2.00pm tomorrow afternoon.
Apart from that Isa Samad has been ordered to report to the nearest police station on the first day of every month.
Mohd. Nazlan when reading the decision said, the Court found that the defence had failed to rebut the assumptions under Section 50, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act that receiving bribes (graft) by the alleged as stated in the nine charges had been made as a payment for the purchase of the said hotel.
“The Court had found that the defence of the alleged, former special political officer to Isa, Muhammad Zahid Md. Arip was a witness with interest had made the alleged involved in this case was an after-thought.
“The narrative raised by the defence that the graft money was a conspiracy plan mentioned by other witnesses including Muhammad Zahid for the need to provide “political funds” had been deviated and the commission money was shared as a result of the sale of the MPHS and made the alleged as a victim was without any merit.
“The Court did not accept the theory and there was no information including the defence witnesses that showed it really had happened,” said Mohd. Nazlan.
Mohd. Isa Samad,72, was charged on nine counts receiving graft of RM3.09 million for himself from Ikhwan Zaidel a Board Member of Gegasan Abadi Properties Sdn. Bhd. (GAPSB) via his special political officer , Muhammad Zahid Md. Arip as a reward for helping to approve the purchase of the hotel by Felda Investment Corporation Sdn. Bhd. (FICSB) at the price of RM160 million.
The charges under Section 16(a) Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2009 and could be sentenced following Section 24(1) with the same Act that provides a maximum jail sentence of 20 years and not less than five times the amount or the value of graft or RM10,000 which is higher if found guilty.-Malaysia World News
