Defence called - Osman, Jamaluddin to know on April 23

The Ipoh Sessions Court has fixed April 23 to decide whether to call for the defence of five men - including two elected state representatives - against a total of 16 counts of corruption involving the RM180 million Seri Iskandar development project in Perak.

Judge Azhaniz Azman fixed the date after hearing submissions today from Senior Federal Counsel Abdul Razak Musa for the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and the four defence counsel for the accused.

The five accused are former PKR state assemblypersons Mohd Osman Mohd Jailu, 58 (Changkat Jering) [right, in white] and Jamaluddin Mohd Radzi, 53 (Behrang); PKR politician Usaili Alias, 56, former Perak Tengah district councillor Zul Hassan, 46, and contractor Fairul Azrim Ismail, 31.

The sixth accused, former Perak State Economic Development Corporation technician Ruslan Sahat, 46, had recently passed away.

The charges include allegedly asking or accepting bribes of between RM400 and RM100,000 between Aug 6 and 19, 2008 as incentives to help businessman Mohammad Imran Abdullah to obtain a contract to develop 36 hectares under the jurisdiction of the Perak Tengah district council in Seri Iskandar.

Jamaluddin was charged with allegedly accepting a RM5,000 bribe from Imran while Osman was charged with three counts of corruption, including allegedly asking and accepting a RM100,000 bribe.

Fairul and Usaili were also charged with corruption and additionally with accepting sexual favours from a woman arranged by Imran at an apartment in Penang while Zul was charged for accepting a sexual favour at a hotel in Batu Ferringi, Penang.

Earlier, in his submission, counsel Surjan Singh Sidhu for Usaili said the corruption allegation was a plot connived by Barisan Nasional to bring down the legally-elected government of Perak formed by Pakatan Rakyat after the general elections in March 2008.

"The motive of this corruption charge is to bring down the Pakatan Rakyat elected state government and also to disgrace Pakatan Rakyat during the Permatang Pauh by-election on Aug 27, 2009," he told the court.

He said the contributions made by Imran to Usaili - who was also appointed PKR’s Permatang Pauh by-election director - were towards the by-election campaign and not for the alleged Sri Iskandar project.

Counsel M Saravan, acting for Zul, submitted that the prosecution should have produced in court the Chinese woman who allegedly had sex with his client.

Saravan asked: "Where is the woman to identify the accused and testify in the case? Where is she whether she is in the country or overseas?"

He said the video clip produced by the prosecution purportedly showing the encounter could have been manipulated or doctored.

Lawyer Abdul Roni Abdul Rahmn for both Osman and Jamaluddin (extreme right, pix above) said his two clients at the time of the alleged crime were Pakatan Rakyat state executive councillors and were not involved in land matters and as such so they had no powers to approve the alleged project.

Osman, Jamaluddin - both of PKR - and former DAP assemblyperson Hee Yit Foong (Jelapang) gained notoriety when they quit their respective parties to become ‘BN-friendly’ independents on Feb 4, 2009. This resulted in the collapse of the10-month-old Perak Pakatan state government.

The state was subsequently plunged into political turmoil with Pakatan denouncing the BN takeover as illegal since a vote of no confidence was not passed in the state assembly to remove Mohd Nizar.

A series of legal suits filled by both sides followed culminating in the Federal Court controversially ruling on Feb 9 this year that Perak was legitimately under BN rule.