Johor MACC arrests two religious officers for allegedly taking bribes

The Johor branch of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has arrested two religious officers for allegedly accepting bribes from a printing company to print books for state religious schools.

The two men, aged 45 and 55, who are attached to the Johor Bahru District Islamic Education Office, were detained after they came to the Johor MACC office at about 4.15 pm today to have their statements recorded.

It is learnt that one of them is involved in an association entrusted to coordinate and manage the sales of books and equipment to 550 state religious schools in Johor, which have about 175,000 pupils.

According to an MACC source, the duo were believed to have accepted bribes from the printing company appointed by the association as an inducement for giving the company several book printing projects worth about RM5 million since 2015.

Following the arrests, the Johor MACC also confiscated six vehicles believed to be bought using the bribe money received by the duo.

The vehicles were a Toyota Alphard, a Chevrolet Malibu, a Toyota Hilux, a Mini Cooper, a Honda CRV and a Perodua Axia.

Johor MACC director Datuk Azmi Alias, when contacted, confirmed the arrests, saying that the duo were expected to be remanded tomorrow to assist further investigations into the case under Section 16 (a)(b) of the MACC Act 2009.

-- BERNAMA