Guilty of all 11 graft charges

High Court finds former Minister of Development

Contractor Wong Tim Kai guilty tooin Brunei's largest corruption trial

FORMER Minister of Development YAM Pg Indera Wijaya Pg Dr Hj Ismail Pg Hj Damit yesterday was found guilty by the High Court on all 11 charges of graft against him.

Judicial Commissioner Gareth Lugar-Mawson delivered the guilty verdict for three charges of corruption and eight charges of receiving benefit through graft.

After the verdict was handed down yesterday afternoon, Pg Indera Wijaya Pg Dr Hj Ismail, 61, was taken into custody and spent last night at Jerudong Prison. His bail was revoked by the court and his sentence will be handed down today.

Under the three corruption charges, Pg Indera Wijaya Pg Dr Hj Ismail was found guilty of accepting the house at Lot 30823 plus $465,000 in monthly rental of $5,000 per month from September 1993 to May 2001, as well as eight residential houses as part of the former minister's share of the development at Lot 33999 and the shophouse at Lot 701 in Kg Kiarong.

The maximum penalty for each of these corruption charges is a fine of $30,000 and a jail sentence of up to seven years.

Meanwhile, the eight charges of receiving benefit were levied under Section 165 of the Penal Code, which is defined as "when a public servant obtains any valuable thing, without consideration, from person concerned in any proceeding or business transacted by such public servant".

Among these eight charges, Pg Indera Wijaya Pg Dr Hj Ismail was found guilty of accepting a house built on Lot 30823, agreeing to accept a 1.752-hectare plot of land and the eight houses on Lot 33999.

Pg Indera Wijaya Pg Dr Hj Ismail was also found guilty of three charges of accepting personal guarantees by Wong Tim Kai, namely: 1) a letter of guarantee signed by Wong Tim Kai as security for Pg Indera Wijaya Pg Dr Hj Ismail's loan of $1,350,000 at Maybank Bhd for the development of Lot 33999; 2) a loan guarantee as security for Pg Indera Wijaya Pg Dr Hj Ismail's loan of $3,333,333 at Baiduri Bank for the development of Lot 33999; and 3) a personal guarantee signed by Wong Tim Kai for $3,161,000 to support a restructured overdraft facility granted to Pg Indera Wijaya Pg Dr Hj Ismail for that amount on March 5, 1999.

He was also found guilty of accepting $3,524,322.11 as gratification made as repayments of his loan at Baiduri Bank and for accepting the shophouses.

For each of the eight charges made under Section 165, Pg Indera Wijaya Pg Dr Hj Ismail faces a maximum penalty of seven years in jail and a fine for each charge brought against him.

A total of 26 witnesses had testified for the prosecution, including an expert accounting witness from Hong Kong, a number of current and former employees of various departments at the Ministry of Development and several employees and acquaintances of Wong Tim Kai.

Twelve bundles of documents containing more than 2,500 pieces of evidence were produced during the trial, including affirmations from Maybank, Baiduri Bank, Citibank and HSBC.

This was the first trial in Brunei Darussalam in which the new laws relating to bankers' affirmation evidence had been used.

The Brunei Times