KUALA LUMPUR: A 54-year-old man with a Datuk Seri title was charged at the Sessions Court, here, with four counts of asking and receiving a RM15 million bribe two years ago.
Datuk Seri Sim Choo Thiam, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges after it was read out to him before Sessions judge Rozina Ayob this morning.
On the first charge, he claimed trial to asking for a RM15 million bribe from Hep Kim Hong, the director of Asia Coding Centre Sdn Bhd, in June 2021, at the Shaas Holdings office in Solaris Dutamas, here.
He was accused of asking for the said amount of bribe through one Syed Abu Zafran Syed Ahmad, as an inducement to get Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainuddin, who was the home minister at the time, to do what was suggested, which was to get whatever projects under the Home Ministry's agencies for Asia Coding Centre.
He was also slapped with three counts of receiving RM3.5 million, RM5.5 million and RM6 million in bribes from Hep on July 19, 28, and 30 the same year at a parking lot in Block D1, Solaris Dutamas.
All the charges were framed under Section 16(a)(B) of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act 2009, punishable under Section 24(1) of the same act.
The section provides for a maximum of 20 years' imprisonment, or a fine of no less than five times the amount of bribe received, or RM10,000, whichever amount is higher, upon conviction.
Deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib informed the court that the offence faced by the accused was a non-bailable offence.
However, he said if the court were to use its discretion to allow bail, he suggested it be set at RM1 million, with additional conditions such as ordering Sim to surrender his passport to the court and have him report to the MACC KL branch once every month.
Lawyer Low Wei Loke, who appeared for Sim, did not object to the suggestions.
The judge then ordered RM1 million bail on the accused, after asking him if he could pay the amount immediately, to which he said he could.
She also ordered Sim to surrender his passport to the court and to report to the MACC KL branch once every month.
Rozina then fixed June 14 for mention.