By Clara Chooi (The Malaysian Insider)
KUALA LUMPUR, April 23 — Perak assemblymen Jamaluddin Mohd Radzi and Mohd Osman Mohd Jailu, the two protagonists in the fall of the Pakatan Rakyat government last year, have been freed of their corruption charges.
They, along with three others who were charged with corruption involving an RM180mil housing development project in Seri Iskandar near Ipoh, had their charges dropped in a Sessions Court in Ipoh this afternoon.
Judge Azhaniz Teh Azman Teh delivered the highly-anticipated decision in open court and declared that the prosecution had failed to prove a prima facie case against the five accused.
“As such, all five are acquitted and discharged without their defences called,” he said.
After a six month-long gruelling trial, the judgement was delivered in a short one-minute to a courtroom packed with supporters and friends of the five accused.
Cheers were heard in court at the announcement of their dismissal.
Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Deputy Public Prosecutor Shahrullah Khan said the prosecution would be filing an appeal to the High Court soon.
In an immediate reaction, Jamaluddin told reporters that the decision was as he had expected.
“I anticipated the results. I am thankful for it,” he told reporters.
Mohd Osman said that the first thing that he would do was to put all his concentration on serving his constituents in Changkat Jering.
“I have been so busy the past six months… moving up and down to the court room,” he said.
Defence counsel Surjan Singh who is representing PKR politician Usaili Alias in the case, also agreed that the decision had not been a surprise.
“This was obviously a case of fix-up and not a corruption case per se, as I have already submitted in court.
“We have proven it. Like I said in my submissions, I pointed out that even the land supposedly shown to (MACC agent provocateur) Mohammad Imran (Abdullah) was never earmarked for the Perak Tengah district council for the said project,” he told The Malaysian Insider when contacted.
The five accused were charged with allegedly soliciting for bribes between RM1,400 and RM100,000 in exchange for helping him develop a 36ha piece of land for the RM180mil housing project in Seri Iskandar in 2008.
The five, including Jamaluddin, Mohd Osman, Usaili, former Perak Tengah district councillor Zul Hassan and businessman Fairul Azrim Ismail, were slapped with 16 charges of corruption in 2008.
Of the five, Zul and Fairul were also slapped with charges of sex bribes when they allegedly accepted the sexual services of Chinese nationals.
A sixth person, former Perak Development Corporation technician Ruslan Sahat, was also charged with the group but passed away in late 2008 and all charges against him were dropped.
Both Jamaluddin and Mohd Osman, along with another former PR comrade Hee Yit Foong of the DAP, were blamed for the fall of the PR government last year after they deserted their respective parties to become Barisan Nasional-friendly Independents.
Their defection had caused the wafer-thin majority held by the PR in the state assembly to turn in favour of the Barisan Nasional, thus leading to the controversial Constitutional impasse that rocked the state for over a year. In the 59-seat assembly at present, both PR and BN control the same number of seats at 28 each.
** Related: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/malaysia/61026-sivakumar-says-frogs-freed-under-bn-package-deal
** I would rather call this ” Cerita Katak-katak Perak”.
I mean BN went to so much trouble to get this 2 ADUN to jump over from PKR to UMNO plus another ADUN to jump from DAP to BN. If this 2 frogs are charged then there will be by-elections in the 2 areas and the likelyhood PKR will recapture said seats, thus un-seating the BN Perak Govt.
It also goes to show how powerful BN is. The Judiary, Police and even the MACC are in BN’s power.
So, if you are with BN, you can do anything, even murder.
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