KUALA TERENGGANU: A former state Forestry Department director claimed trial to three counts of corruption at the sessions court here today.
Datuk Azmi Nordin, 58, was charged with receiving a total of RM60,000 via three bank remittances into a relative’s account over a three-month period in 2013.
Azmi, now the Peninsula Forestry Department’s biological civiculture and preservation division director in Kuala Lumpur, pleaded ‘not guilty’ to all three charges before sessions court judge Mohamad Haldar Abdul Aziz.
According to the facts of the case, Azmi had first received RM30,000, deposited into the Maybank account of one Azhar Nordin, 54, from Yew Keong Fah, 48, on March 3, 2013.
Yew, a timber contractor from Syarikat Ciri Bina Machinery and Hardware Sdn Bhd, had obtained approval for logging at compartments 36b and 40a at the Hulu Terengganu forest reserve in Mukim Tersat here.
Azmi received a second RM20,000 payment June 16, 2013, and the third of RM10,000 – both via the same modus operandi, from Yew on Aug 13, 2013.
He faces charges under Section 165 of the Penal Code for all three counts, which, upon conviction, carry a two-year jail term, a fine, or both.
The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) was represented by its deputy public prosecutor, Farah Yasmin Salleh, while Azmi was unrepresented.
Haldar allowed bail of RM15,000 in one surety and ordered Azmi to surrender his international passport, pending trial on May 8.