KUALA LUMPUR: A 50-year-old travel agency director has claimed trial to a charge of advertising fraudulent haj packages that scammed more than 300 pilgrims.
Agus Rizal Mat Ali pleaded not guilty after the charges were read to him before Sessions Court Judge Kamarudin Kamsun this morning.
He was accused of advertising a fraudulent haj package service under UC Travel Sdn Bhd, which claimes that the company could make business transactions and conduct a haj trip to Mekah this year, under the furada visa.
The furada visa is a self-managed visa issued by Saudi Arabia, without involving the Tabung Haji (TH) quota.
However, the travel agency did not have a valid pilgrimage management license from TH.
The accused, who was represented by Datuk Dhanaraj Vasudevan and Ho Cheng En was alleged to have uploaded the advertisement on the company's Facebook page on May 9 this year.
He was nabbed by the authorities, along with four other individuals on July 7.
He was charged under Section 27(1)(b) of the Tabung Haji Act 1995, which carries one-year maximum imprisonment, or an RM100,000 fine if convicted.
Deputy public prosecutor Nur Aqilah Ishak prosecuted.
Judge Kamarudin Samsun ordered RM50,000 bail on the accused and fixed September 8 for case re-mention.
A total of 380 haj pilgrims were found stranded at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on July 7.
The pilgrims were reported to have paid for furada visas with travel agencies to perform the haj and did not go through Tabung Haji (TH).
The police were reported to have received 132 reports from 336 pilgrims, involving losses of more than RM5.6 million related to the fraudulent haj packages advertised by three travel agencies and detained five individuals to assist with the investigation subsequently.