Bung Moktar and wife's corruption trial to commence on May 14

KUALA LUMPUR (Bernama): The corruption trial of Kinabatangan MP Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin and his wife Datin Seri Zizie A.Samad will resume on May 14 at the Sessions Court here with the fifth prosecution witness to continue her testimony.

Deputy public prosecutor Mohamad Fadhly Mohd Zamry said the court had set May 14 and 15 to continue the trial.

"The defence team will cross-examine the fifth witness, a member of the Felcra Berhad Board of Directors Dr Habibah Suleiman, when the trial commence on that day,” he said when asked on the new date of the trial.

The trial had its last proceedings on March 17 before Judge Rozina Ayob and was supposed to continue on April 10 and later on April 29 but it was postponed following the implementation of the movement control order by the government.

On May 3 last year, Bung Moktar, 60, pleaded not guilty on two counts of receiving bribes of RM2.2mil and RM262,500, respectively, for obtaining approval for Felcra to make a RM150mil investment in unit trusts products of Public Mutual.

Bung Moktar, who was then the Felcra non-executive chairman, was accused of taking the bribes from Public Mutual's investment agent Madhi Abdul Hamid, 38, through his wife Zizie Ezette at Taman Melawati branch of Public Bank Berhad at No. 262-265, Jalan Bandar 12, Taman Melawati here between 12.30pm and 5pm on June 12, 2015.

He also claimed trial for the charge of taking for himself a bribe of RM337,500 from another Public Mutual's investment agent Norhaili Ahmad Mokhtar, 42, under the name of Zizie Izette for the same purpose.

The offence was allegedly committed at the same location on June 19, 2015.

Zizie Ezette also pleaded not guilty to the three charges of abetting her husband on the same matter at the same place, date and time. - Bernama