KUALA LUMPUR (May 26): Umno president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi exclaimed in court on Thursday (May 26) that the charges against him are slanderous while on the stand in his defence. 

Zahid was testifying about RM6 million he allegedly received from two individuals as an inducement to give them a contract to supply chips for Malaysian passports.

Zahid denied that this was a bribe and said that this was a political donation which was meant to be used for his charitable endeavours. 

“It was definitely not a bribe or for corruption so that I would appoint their company for a passport chip contract,” he said. 

“These charges are slanderous … slanderous,” the former deputy prime minister stressed.

Zahid was defending himself against two charges of bribery for having received RM5 million and RM1 million respectively to appoint Datasonic Technologies Sdn Bhd (DTSB) for the supply of 12.5 million chips for Malaysian passports.

In total, Zahid is charged with 47 charges — 12 for criminal breach of trust, eight for bribery and 27 for money laundering — where he is accused of misappropriating funds. 

Zahid is said to have facilitated in 2015 as the then home affairs minister DTSB’s appointment under a five-year contract, through direct negotiations at the ministry, to provide 12.5 million chips to the Immigration Department for Malaysian passports.

The contract, which was awarded by the government to DTSB, was worth RM300 million.

Zahid, meanwhile, is said to have received the RM6 million from DTSB deputy managing director Chew Ben Ben in 2017.

But Zahid said that although the contract was awarded to DTSB, it had nothing to do with him as the contract was awarded by the Ministry of Finance (MoF), which was not under his purview. 

Previously, Chew testified that the money given to Zahid was a “political donation” because DTSB director Datuk Abu Hanifah Noordin felt grateful that the company was listed for the contract and wanted to show its support with the contribution.

“The reason we made that donation was because Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid was the BN (Barisan Nasional) vice-president, [and] Hanifah felt grateful.

“He felt grateful to BN at that time for a stable economy and a peaceful country. It was because of the nation’s stability in politics that he was happy with the government of the day,” Chew said when he took the witness stand in February 2020. 

Chew also testified that after his meeting with Zahid in April 2017 in Putrajaya, he was led to believe that the latter needed money for the 14th general election.

In that meeting, Chew offered a donation to Zahid through Hanifah.

Chew also testified that Zahid had asked him to issue a cheque to a Maybank account owned by Lewis & Co instead of an Umno or BN account.

Hanifah, on the other hand, also testified that this was a political donation, which led Zahid to say: “The witness himself has testified that the money was a political donation."

“Hanifah and Chew have both testified that the money had nothing to do with the contract,” Zahid added. 

He said that in his role as the then home minister, he was providing assistance to the MoF, Immigration Department and the procurement division of the Home Ministry. 

He added that administrative powers in the ministry came under the secretary-general and not the minister. 

Zahid also denied ever asking Azlan Shah Jaffril, whose company Profound Radiance Sdn Bhd now manages the One Stop Centre (OSC) work permit processing system for Pakistani and Nepali workers, for a RM2 million bribe. 

Zahid said the RM2 million he received from Azlan in 2017 and 2018 in three cheques was a political donation and not for the contract. 

Zahid also denied it was him who had approved the reinstatement of Profound Radiance for the Home Ministry’s project.

He said it was former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak who reinstated the company after it appealed its cancellation to Najib. 

Najib then minuted on the appeal letter from Profound Radiance: “YAB Datuk Seri Dr Zahid, agree to be given chance if no wrongdoing (kesalahan) was done.”

Zahid said he took that as a directive from Najib to reinstate the company. 

“I state that Datuk Seri Najib, the former prime minister, had ordered the appointment of Profound Radiance Sdn Bhd for the one stop centre in Pakistan and Nepal to be approved,” he added. 

Zahid’s trial, which is in the defence stage, is before Justice Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah.