KUALA LUMPUR: A customs director was charged in the Sessions Court here with taking bribes as payoff for not taking action against the importation of untaxed liquor.
Datuk Mohd Nasir Said, 58, claimed trial to eight counts of taking bribes, each worth RM10,000, as an inducement to use his position as Malacca customs director to not take action against untaxed liquor or against a company belonging to one of his alleged bribers.
According to the charge sheet, Mohd Nasir took the bribes in the parking lot of Tesco Hypermarket, in Taman Midah, Cheras, on October 2012 and between January and July this year.
He claimed trial to all charges.
Deputy public prosecutor Anthony Kevin Morais urged the court to set bail at RM10,000 for each offence.
He also applied that the case be transferred to the Shah Alam Sessions Court, as the other customs officers were being charged there.
Mohd Nasir's counsel Che Azmi Che Omar pleaded for lower bail, saying his client's accounts had been frozen and his pay suspended.
The lawyer also noted that Mohd Nasir had served the customs department for 34 years, and was supposed to retire in 16 months.
Under Section 24(1) of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act 2009, Mohd Nasir faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine not less than five times the sum of the bribe.
Judge Rosbiah Hanin set bail at RM80,000 in total, with one surety and the additional condition that Mohd Nasir surrendered his passport to the court.
She fixed Oct 23 for next mention.
MACC director of investigation Datuk Mohd Jamidan Abdullah confirmed that Mohd Nasir was currently customs director for Perak, although Mohd Nasir held the same post in Malacca at time of the alleged offence.
PETALING JAYA: Another 13 Customs officers, including a state director, were remanded for a week to facilitate investigations into a smuggling scandal involving illicit cigarettes and alcohol.
The suspects are being investigated by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).
They are aged between 32 and 57 and are believed to be of various ranks.
It is learnt that the state director has a Datuk title.
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They were brought to court at around 9.50am and were seen dressed in orange lock-up attire.
Magistrate Ahmad Solihin Abd Wahid issued the remand order to facilitate further investigations under the MACC Act 2009, the Anti-Money Laundering Act and Anti-Terrorism Financing Act.
The remand period for the officers will end next Thursday.
It was reported that the MACC made the arrests while raiding the officers’ homes and offices in the Klang Valley and northern states at midnight on Wednesday.
This followed the arrest of 22 people, including 12 Customs officers on Sept 3, for alleged corruption involving smuggling of items.
MACC deputy chief commissioner Datuk Seri Mohd Shukri Abdull said the suspects were detained in a special operation in the Klang Valley following more than a year of surveillance on the duty free zone in Port Klang.
Among those detained were 10 company owners and their agents, as well as a lorry driver suspected of transporting the smuggled items.
