Yesterday (5 September), the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) said they have dropped the 29 allegedly bribery charges against former Felda board of directors’ member, Noor Ehsanuddin Mohd Harun Narrashi for he had returned the money before the probe.
In the statement, MACC said the acquittal was based on facts found from its investigations.
MACC added that they started the further investigation when the accused submitted his representation and statement of defence under Section 62 of the MACC Act 2009 during the trial.
“Based on the new findings and evidence, the accused proved that he had returned the money alleged to be bribes before the investigations had started.” they said.
Previous on 1 September, Bernama reported that Noor Ehsanuddin had been acquitted and discharged of 29 bribery charges after the prosecution withdrew the charges against him.
In addition, MACC said they had referred the case to the Attorney-General’s Chambers and had decided not to proceed with the trial after new evidence was presented.
“The decision was also made after the key witness testimony was found to be inconsistent (with the facts).” they said.
Meanwhile, Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M) President, Muhammad Mohan had asked MACC to explain why the corruption charges were dropped as it had raised a lot of questions.
“The question is why was this not looked into when he was charged in the first place.” Muhammad Mohan said.
On the other hand, Noor Ehsanuddin’s counsel, Hasnal Rezua Merican told FMT that MACC had investigated the defence statement and was satisfied that all transactions as stated in the charges were advances that had been fully repaid.
However, netizens echoed the comment from Muhammad Mohan and criticized MACC for not pressing the charges against the Ex-Felda Board Member.
Netizens said that “donation” had became a “loan” and this is obviously a loophole that those individuals abuse to get themselves acquitted for bribery charges.
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Read the statement from MACC here:
, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) said they have dropped the 29 allegedly bribery charges against former Felda board of directors’ member, Noor Ehsanuddin Mohd Harun Narrashi for he had returned the money before the probe.){kind=link}