Prosecution opposes bid by Hamzah Zainudin’s ex-aide to strike out parts of witness testimony in RM3

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 14 — The prosecution has objected to an application by Sayed Amir Muzzakkir Al Sayed Mohamad, former political secretary to former home minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin, to expunge six paragraphs from the written statement of a key prosecution witness.

The six paragraphs included information on a payment of five per cent of the project value for a tender on maintenance services and the supply of spare parts for the Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM).

Deputy public prosecutor Hazel Tan Jia Qi said the defence’s application to expunge paragraphs three to eight from the statement of the 12th prosecution witness, Nexuscorpgroup Sdn Bhd director and shareholder Ismuni Johari, was premature.

“The prosecution has yet to conduct the witness’s examination-in-chief. How, then, can the defence know that what is stated in the statement is irrelevant to the case? The defence may still cross-examine the witness.

“Paragraphs three to eight are merely the prosecution’s narrative outlining why the accused is charged with RM350,000,” she said at the trial of Sayed Amir Muzzakkir, who is facing three corruption charges amounting to RM350,000.

Earlier, Sayed Amir Muzzakkir’s lawyer Asmadi Hussin argued that paragraphs three to eight of the witness’ statement were irrelevant to the charges and prejudicial to his client.

“Section 136 of the Evidence Act 1950 gives the court the authority to decide on the admissibility of evidence,” said Asmadi, who is handling the case with lawyer Md Yunos Shariff.

Judge Rosli Ahmad asked the defence to include the application in its submissions and said he would decide on it when delivering a ruling at the conclusion of the prosecution’s case.

The trial will resume on July 22.

On May 23, 2024, Sayed Amir Muzzakkir was charged with two counts of receiving bribes amounting to RM350,000 from Nexuscorpgroup Sdn Bhd managing director Wan Azhar Mohamed Yusof.

The money was allegedly an inducement to assist the company in obtaining the Maintenance Services and Supply of Spare Parts for Infrastructure Equipment, Servers, Software and User Radios for the RMPNet System for the Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM) tender worth RM381,112,042.44.

He was alleged to have committed the offences at the Yayasan Tanah Aku office in Solaris Dutamas here, at 4 pm on Dec 4, 2020, and at 3.30 pm on Dec 16, 2020.

Sayed Amir Muzzakkir was also charged with soliciting a bribe of RM350,000 from the same individual for the same purpose at the Nexuscorp Group Sdn Bhd office in the Section 7 Industrial Area in Shah Alam in early December 2020.

The charges are under Section 16 (a)(A) of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act 2009 and punishable under Section 24(1) of the same Act, which provides for a maximum jail term of 20 years and a fine of not less than five times the value of the bribe or RM10,000, whichever is higher, upon conviction. — Bernama