KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 3 — Barisan National (BN) lawmakers in Parliament offered their support for Sabak Bernam Umno MP Datuk Abdul Rahman Bakri today after he was charged with corruption and urged the public not to conclude he is guilty.
They stressed that Abdul Rahman was still innocent unless proven guilty.
Pasir Salak MP Datuk Tajuddin Abdul Rahman applauded the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) in its anti-graft swoop but still pleaded the case for his party colleague.
“Guilty or not guilty is subjected to the hearing. So we cannot draw any conclusion. The move by MACC is good also because it is what the people want. I hope that they are professional about it,” he said.
Tanjung Karang MP Datuk Noh Omar added that Malaysians must be patient and wait for the court verdict.
“The charge does not determine if he is guilty or not so we have to hold the principle that a person is innocent unless proven otherwise,” he said.
Putrajaya MP Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor said he hoped that the problem could be resolved quickly.
“You accuse MACC of selective prosecution. It is not selective prosecution , if the person is at fault then they are fault. Well, I am a bit surprised that (he was charged) but we hope to resolve this problem as soon as possible,” he explained.
However minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz was not surprised and emphasised that Abdul Rahman’s charge proved MACC did not practise selective prosecution.
“We want MACC to take action regardless of the affiliation of the charged person. They merely informed me yesterday and I gave them the assurance that they do their work independently and let the law take its course.
“I have been saying that many times and I have gave them assurance that they do their job independently even if it means some of our people being charged. That was the assurance that we gave to them,” he said.
Abdul Rahman claimed trial to the eight charges for abusing funds worth RM10,000 and producing a fake invoice for a bogus event in his former state constituency.
In the charge sheet, the Sabak Bernam MP was accused of submitting a form with fake details including the purchase of gifts in requesting for allocations for several public events which did not take place.
The first charge involves the alleged abuse of allocation for a public event in Sg Pelek worth RM5,000, the second for producing a fake invoice for the supply of car flags worth RM2,500 and the third for another abuse of state allocation worth RM2,500.
Hearing has been set from March 29 to April 9, 2010. Nine witnesses will be called to testify.
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