Money politics: Umno's Norza charged

Umno supreme council member Norza Zakaria was charged this morning in Temerloh magistrate's court in Pahang for alleged involvement in money politics.
He claimed trial to two charges of offering bribes to party delegates to vote for him for the supreme council post in the coming party polls later this month.
Norza, represented by Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, was released on a RM10,000 bail in one surety.
Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission's head of prosecution Abdul Razak Musa led the prosecution.
Magistrate Ida Rahayu Sharif fixed April 22 to mention the case.
Norza, 43, is alleged to have committed the offences on Jan 20, 2009 at 6.30pm at No 38, Pinggiran Tasik, Taman Bandar Temerloh, in Temerloh.
He is charged with corruptly giving Khadri Musa RM1,500 through Halimi Kamaruzzaman to be distributed to party delegates as inducement to vote for him
Norza is also charged with corruptly giving RM1,900 to Mohammad Anuar Yunus, also through Halimi Kamaruzzaman, for the same purpose.
The charges are under Section 16 (b)(A) of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2009 (Act 694) and punishable under Section 24 of the same Act.
Norza was arrested in January and released on bail pending investigations.
An aide to face charge too
Prior to this, MACC had rounded up 12 party division leaders for allegedly dabbling in money politics. The commission had also queried Norza for more than eight hours in Temerloh.
Norza is the Federal Territory Umno Youth chief. He was a former political secretary to Second Finance Minister Nor Mohamed Yaacop.
He is also a close associate of Umno Youth deputy chief Khairy Jamaluddin and considered to be a member of the prime minister's inner circle.
Norza has never commented on the probe on him but had said that he was assisting MACC in their investigations.
This would be the first big catch of the MACC in its ongoing probe into money politics in Umno.
On another matter, a Maran Umno division committee member who lodged a police report alleging that he had been tortured by MACC officers to implicate Norza of practicing money politics is expected to be charged today for lodging a false report.
On Jan 28, Halimi Kamaruzzaman, 46, claimed that he was assaulted during his four-day remand in Kuantan.
According to him, MACC officers wanted him to confess that Norza was involved in money politics.

tunku : khairy's man.....hmmmm. hope to see more catches soon.at the same time we want the MACC to have solid evidence before charging them.