MALAYSIA STATE OF SELANGOR FORMER CM JAILED FOR CORRUPTION

PUTRAJAYA,Malaysia - The Federal Court here upheld the one-year jail term for Selangor Chief Minister Dr Mohamad Khir Toyo for corruption.

Chief Judge of Malaya Justice Zulkefli Ahmad Makinudin, who chaired the five-man panel, made the order on the grounds that Dr Khir had committed a crime within his knowledge as a public servant for obtaining for himself and his wife two plots of land and a bungalow in Shah Alam.

Justice Zulkefli also rejected the mitigation by defence counsel Tan Sri Shafee Abdullah for Dr Khir to provide free dental service to the poor in lieu of jail term. He said this was only meant for light offences.

• Other judges on the panel were Justices Ahmad Maarop, Hasan Lah, Jeffrey Tan Kok Wha and Ramly Ali.
• Dr Khir will be sent to the Kajang prison.
• On Sept 22, the same panel convicted Dr Khir after dismissing his appeal to set aside his conviction.
• He was charged with obtaining for himself and his wife two lots of land and a bungalow at Lots 8 & 10, Jalan Suasa 7/1L, Shah Alam, through Ditamas Sdn Bhd director Sham­suddin Hayroni.
• The land and house were bought at RM3.5million (S$1.13 million), in contrast to the price of RM6.5million paid for it by Ditamas on Dec 23, 2004.

Dr Khir committed the offence knowing that Shamsuddin had dealings with him in his official capacity as mentri besar at the time.

On May 30 last year, the Court of Appeal rejected Dr Khir's appeal against his conviction and upheld the court order for him to forfeit ownership of the property and hand it over to the government.

Source: AsiaOne