Dr Mohamed Khir Toyo was found guilty today of abusing his influence to buy a luxury home and land at a discount of up to RM3 million.
The High Court here ruled that the RM3.5 million the former Selangor mentri besar paid for the property was “inadequate consideration.”
“The defence failed to raise reasonable doubt in the prosecution’s case,” said judge Datuk Mohtarudin Baki
The judge sentenced Dr Khir, who appeared calm, to 12 months’ imprisonment and ordered the seizure of the property.
Mohtarudin agreed with deputy public prosecutor Masri Daud, who argued that the conviction under Section 165 of the Penal Code also invoked Section 36 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, which mandates that the court seize property that is the subject of a graft offence.
“When public and private interests meet, public interest must be given priority. The accused abuse his position as the highest executive in the state. A fine will not be sufficient,” he said when delivering the sentence.
Defence lawyer Kamarul Hisham Kamarudin had failed to convince the judge to give Dr Khir a lighter sentence in light of “his contributions as mentri besar of Selangor all these years which is not in dispute.”
However, Mohtarudin granted Dr Khir a stay of the execution pending an appeal that his lawyer, M. Athimulan, said would be filed this afternoon.
Dr Khir and his wife, Siti Zaharah Kechik, were all smiles as they left the courtroom and the former MB took time to shake the hands of dozens of supporters before getting into his car.
However, he granted Dr Khir a stay of execution pending an appeal that must be filed within 14 days.
Dr Khir was charged with illegally obtaining for himself and his wife two lots of land and a house at No. 8 and 10, Jalan Suasa 7/1L here from Ditamas Sdn Bhd through its director Datuk Shamsuddin Hayroni.
The property was purchased at RM3.5 million although Ditamas had bought it tfor RM6.5 million on December 23, 2004.
Dr Khir, the state assemblyman for Sungai Panjang, was alleged to have committed the offence at the official residence of the Selangor mentri besar at Jalan Permata 7/1, Section 7 here on May 29, 2007.
comments
Remember how Khir Toyo badly humiliated a civil servant on the broom incident? Now somebody should present him a bigger broom as he well deserved it.
I feel that this sentence is way lenient on Toyo, 12 months jail term in comparison to what a mother who got 24 months for stealing a tin of milk to feed her hungry child.
Here you have a guy who abused his power as the top man in a state, that means abusing the trust of millions of people of Selangor, getting 12 months only. No wonder he could walk out smiling.
This is a fake conviction. We have to see the result of his appeal. We have seen too many cases like this before where a lower court came with a guilty conviction only to be dismissed by a higher court.
I only hope that the higher court would impose a higher sentence in his appeal for justice to be served.
'found guilty of abusing his influnce as a Mentri Besar' - this is not as grave as corruption in our eyes, we are more interested to know:
1) how he can get that kind of bank loan?
2) the pay slip he used in his loan application?
3) how he can BLOODY afford this mansion with his MB pay!!!?
4) why he was not charge in court for corruption but abuse of power?
No comments:
Post a Comment