Forestry director on trial over RM20,000 bribe for illegal logging.
KUALA LUMPUR: Kedah Forestry director Kasim Othman, 56, has claimed trial at the Sessions Court to agreeing to receive RM20,000 bribe last year. Kasim, 56, was charged with accepting the money from Yee Gan Seng as an inducement to approve an application from AK Millenium Enterprise to withdraw a logging tender in compartment 71-A in the Rimba Teloi Forest Reserve area in Sik, which the company also participated in. He was said to have agreed to accept the bribe at the Grand Seasons Hotel here at about between 12pm and 12.45pm on July 16, last year. He is charged under Section 17(a) of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2009 which carries a maximum jail sentence of 20 years and fine five times the bribe amount or RM10,000, whichever is higher. Deputy public prosecutor Fadzillah mohd Ossman (spelling correct) offered him bail at RM20,000. However, Kasim's lawyer Mohd Firuz Jaffril told the court that he had faced another charge in the Alor Setar Sessions court for accepting a RM5,000 bribe at the Kedah Forestry Department on July 8, 2009, for the same purpose. Mohd Firuz said his client had been granted bail at RM5,000 by the Sessions court there, and asked for the case to be transfered there to be jointly heard as "all the witnesses are in Alor Setar". Trial date had also been fixed for May 10 in Alor Setar. Judge S.M. Komathy Suppiah then allowed the transfer for the case to be jointly heard. TheStar