A three-member Court of Appeal bench chaired by Justice Hanipah Farikullah, who allowed the prosecution’s appeal, said there was merit in its application to set aside the acquittal previously granted by the Johor Bahru High Court.
“Based on the totality of the evidence, we are satisfied the prosecution had proved the elements of the charges,” she said.
Hanipah also said the defence had failed to rebut the presumption under Section 50 of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act 2009 that the money was presumed to have been corruptly solicited or received.
“The High Court judge had erred in law and facts. The conviction and sentence imposed by the trial court is restored,” said Hanipah, who sat with Justices Ahmad Nasfy Yasin and Nordin Hassan.
The court then issued a warrant of committal for Abdul Aziz, 62, to serve his jail term as there was no avenue for further appeal.
Abdul Aziz was charged under Section 16(a) of the MACC Act for corruptly soliciting and receiving the bribe and was liable under Section 24 upon conviction to serve a jail term of up to 20 years and a fine of not less than five times the value of the gratification or RM10,000, whichever was higher.
In 2017, the sessions court in Johor Bahru convicted him of both offences and sentenced him to two years’ imprisonment and a fine of RM75,000 for each offence.
The jail sentences were ordered to run concurrently, meaning that Abdul Aziz was to serve only two years in jail, but would need to pay a total fine of RM150,000.
Abdul Aziz had solicited the RM15,000 bribe from contractor Anal Talhah sometime in December 2010 and received the money through his personal account in Bank Muamalat, Parit Raja near Batu Pahat on Jan 28, 2011.
The bribe was an inducement to assist the contractor secure certain projects from UTHM’s Property Development and Management office.
At the time, the accused was the UTHM tender bid committee chairman and an acquisition board member.
Deputy public prosecutor Wong Poi Yoke appeared for the prosecution while Shahruddin Ali and Azfah Azmi represented Abdul Aziz.