Malaysia's land minister pleaded innocent to corruption charges yesterday after being arrested for illegal share trading.
Land and Cooperative Development Minister Kasitah Gaddam's case is the second high-profile anti-corruption arrest this week in a crackdown ordered by Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
Kasitah was formally charged with two counts of corruption in the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court involving the sale of millions of ringgit worth of shares in a plantation company held by the Sabah Land Development Board, which he chairs.
Kasitah pleaded innocent to both charges. He was released on bail of 1 million ringgit (US$263,000) and ordered to surrender his passport.
Magistrate Rosenani Abdul Rahman agreed to send the case to the high court for its next hearing. No date was set.
On the first count, prosecution documents presented to the court allege Kasitah "took part in corrupt acts" by using his position as chairman of the state land body to approve the sale of 16.8 million shares it held in SAPI Plantations to Briskmark Enterprises. Kasitah was promised 3.6 million of the SAPI Plantations shares to arrange the sale, prosecutors allege.
The second count accuses Kasitah of deceiving the rest of the board into approving the sale.
Zawawi Nordin, deputy director general of the Anti-Corruption Agency that arrested Kasitah, said the illegal transactions were worth up to 40 million ringgit (US$10.5 million), the Bernama national news agency reported.
Kasitah's lawyer, Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, said "we've got a very good chance of defending this case."
The Sabah Land Development Board is in charge of government land development projects in Sabah state on Borneo island.
It is linked to the national farming cooperative body Felda, which is the largest owner of plantation land in Malaysia, producing mostly palm oil.
Felda is administered by Kasitah's ministry. Kasitah is from Sabah.
Kasitah's arrest came two days after another high-profile anti-corruption case, though they are not believed to be linked.
On Tuesday, Eric Chia Eng Hock, the former tycoon at the center of Malaysia's biggest financial scandal was charged with criminal breach of trust in connection 76.4 million ringgit (US$20 million) missing from government-controlled Perwaja Steel.
The big-hitting steel company almost collapsed in 1996 under debts and losses of more than 10 billion ringgit (US$2.7 billion).
Since succeeding former prime minister Mahathir Mohamed, Abdullah has made fighting corruption and improving corporate governance -- issues that have tarnished Malaysia's reputation for years -- a central policy plank as he prepares to call important elections.
Abdullah this week warned members of his government that he was reviewing their performance, and said he wanted to weed out "discredited personalities."
When a hiker fell from a 55m waterfall in wild New Zealand bush, rescuers were forced to evacuate the badly hurt woman without her dog, which could not be found. After strangers raised thousands of dollars for a search, border collie Molly was flown to safety by a helicopter pilot who was determined to reunite the pet and the owner. A week earlier, an emergency rescue helicopter found the woman with bruises and lacerations after a fall at a rocky spot at the waterfall on the South Island’s West Coast. She was airlifted on March 24, but they were forced to
HIGH HOPES: The power source is expected to have a future, as it is not dependent on the weather or light, and could be useful for places with large desalination facilities A Japanese water plant is harnessing the natural process of osmosis to generate renewable energy that could one day become a common power source. The possibility of generating power from osmosis — when water molecules pass from a less salty solution to a more salty one — has long been known. However, actually generating energy from that has proved more complicated, in part due the difficulty of designing the membrane through which the molecules pass. Engineers in Fukuoka, Japan, and their private partners think they might have cracked it, and have opened what is only the world’s second osmotic power plant. It generates
Hundreds of Filipinos and tourists flocked to a sun-bleached field north of Manila yesterday, on Good Friday, to witness one of the country’s most blood-soaked displays of religious fervor, undeterred by rising fuel prices. Scores of bare-chested flagellants with covered faces walked barefoot through the dusty streets of Pampanga Province’s San Fernando as they flogged their backs with bamboo whips in the scorching heat. Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalists said they saw devotees deliberately puncturing their skin with glass shards attached to a small wooden paddle to ensure their bleeding during the ritual, a way to atone for sins and seek miracles from
Chinese dissident artist Gao Zhen (高兟), famous for making provocative satirical sculptures of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong (毛澤東), was tried on Monday over accusations of “defaming national heroes and martyrs,” his wife and a rights group said. Gao, 69, who was detained in 2024 during a visit from the US, faces a maximum three-year prison sentence, said his wife, Zhao Yaliang (趙雅良), and Shane Yi, a researcher at the Chinese Human Rights Defenders group which operates outside the nation. The closed-door, one-day trial took place at Sanhe City People’s Court in Hebei Province neighboring the capital, Beijing, and ended without a
RSS