IPOH, Aug 13 — A former civil servant pleaded not guilty at the Sessions Court here to three charges of receiving bribes amounting RM108,000 over the past two years.
Herman Ibrahim, 45, entered the plea before judge S. Indra Nehru after the charges were read to him.
The former Perak Selendang Group cultural officer in the State Secretariat Building was accused of committing the offences when he had been appointed as an agent to the 2018 Perak Malaysian Sports (Sukma) Secretariat.
For the first and second charges, Herman was accused of receiving RM50,000 and RM40,000 in gratification on two separate occasions from the owner of Syarikat Ainaz Marketing, with whom he had a working relationship, at the Jalan Tun Sambanthan RHB Bank here on November 21, 2018 and February 1, last year.
The third charge accused him of receiving RM18,000 in gratification from the owner of Syarikat Shadess Event Planner, with whom he had worked in an official capacity, near the State Secretariat Building here on November 18, 2018.
All the charges were made under Section 165 of the Penal Code pertaining to the offence of a public servant receiving gratification from those dealing with him in an official capacity.
Each charge is punishable by up to two years’ imprisonment, a fine, or both upon conviction.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Nurul Wahida Jalaluddin appeared for the prosecution while lawyer Khairilazwar Khalil represented Herman.
Earlier, Nurul requested that bail be set at RM10,000 for each charge.
“We hope the court will also order the accused to report at the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Office in Perak once a month,” she said.
However, Khairilazwar asked the court to reduce this to RM7,000 per charge on grounds that the accused was unemployed after being dismissed from his position and needed to care for his family.
Indra Nehru set bail at RM21,000 for all three charges, ordered Herman to report to the MACC office monthly until the trial is completed, and set August 19 for mention.
The accused is already on trial for three other charges of receiving bribes amounting to RM149,600.
