Its president, Muhammad Mohan, said the move to withdraw 29 corruption charges against Ehsanuddin had raised a lot of questions from members of the public.
“The 29 charges were withdrawn after MACC studied his defence statement. The question is why was this not looked into when he was charged in the first place.
“On the face of it, the mere fact that these were ‘advances’ or ‘advances that have been repaid’ does not make a transaction any less corrupt as originally alleged as ‘advances’ are part of ‘gratification’ under the MACC Act,” he said.
Yesterday, it was reported that Ehsanuddin was acquitted by the Kuala Lumpur sessions court on May 21.
His lawyer Hasnal Rezua Merican said the prosecution informed the court during the proceedings that it was withdrawing all the charges.
“MACC investigated the defence statement under Section 62 and was satisfied that all transactions made as stated in the charges were advances that had been fully repaid,” he said.
The trial started in August 2019 and 24 prosecution witnesses, including bank officers and Companies Commission of Malaysia officials, had given evidence.
Ehsanuddin was slapped with 14 charges of accepting a bribe of RM23,540.68 in instalment payments for a BMW 3 Series car from printing company Karya Hidayah Sdn Bhd in 2014 and 2015.
In the Johor Bahru sessions court, he faced 10 corruption charges, including over an alleged bribe of RM50,000 and a piece of land from the same company in 2013 and 2014.
He was also charged in the Shah Alam sessions court with five counts of accepting the maintenance charges for two vehicles and legal fee payment of RM12,707.60 for the purchase of a piece of land.
All the charges were heard together in the Kuala Lumpur sessions court.
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