Federal Court keeps one-year jail sentence for ex-Selangor MB Khir Toyo
(Malay Mail Online) – The Federal Court upheld today the one-year jail term previously meted out to Dr Mohamad Khir Toyo, after the former Selangor mentri besar lost his final appeal against a corruption conviction.
The apex court also maintained the forfeiture of the land that he had underpaid for back in 2007.
Chief Judge of Malaya Tan Sri Zulkefli Ahmad Makinudin, who chaired the five-man panel, said among other things that public interest should always be the first and foremost consideration in sentencing.
“We unanimously dismiss the appeal against sentencing. We therefore affirm the sentence of one-year imprisonment,” the judge said, having said that corruption in any form should not be condoned.
Mohamad Khir, 50, is a licensed dentist who had served as Selangor mentri besar for eight years up until 2008.
Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah had last week sought for a fine for Mohamad Khir or an order to provide free dental care to the poor as community service instead of a jail term as his client was a first-time offender, among other things.
Last Tuesday, the Federal Court panel ruled that the offence was proven beyond reasonable doubt when it unanimously upheld Mohamad Khir’s previous conviction under Section 165 of the Penal Code, which comes with a maximum two-year jail term or fine or both.
The other judges on the Federal Court panel are Tan Sri Jeffrey Tan Kok Wha, Tan Sri Ahmad Haji Maarop, Tan Sri Hasan Lah and Datuk Ramly Haji Ali.
On December 23, 2011, the Shah Alam High Court convicted Mohamad Khir of corruptly using his position as then Selangor MB and Selangor State Development Corporation (PKNS) chairman to obtain land and property below the market price in 2007.
He was given a 12-month jail sentence after being found guilty of obtaining two plots of land and a bungalow in Section 7, Shah Alam for himself and his wife Zahrah Kechik, from Ditamas Sdn Bhd through its director Datuk Shamsuddin Hayroni with the inadequate payment of RM3.5 million in 2007.
He was charged with knowingly obtaining a valuable thing as a public servant without paying adequate consideration for the property that Ditamas had itself purchased at RM6.5 million in December 2004, and doing so with the knowledge that Shamsuddin had official dealings with him.
On May 30, 2013, Mohamad Khir lost his appeal at the Court of Appeal against his conviction and one-year jail term.
