Five Royal Malaysian Navy staff, including a female officer, were arrested by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) in and around the naval base in Lumut, on Monday evening, Malay Mail reported.
MACC obtained a seven-day remand order against 14 people to facilitate investigations into alleged corruption offences. The navy personnel will be investigated under Section 17 (a) of the MACC Act 2009 while the others are being probed under Section 17 (b). Magistrate Rahimah Rahim issued the order to remand all of them, aged in their 30s to their 50s, to facilitate investigation.
The RMN officers and personnel are suspected to have received bribes as an inducement to act or not to act in association with their official duties, the MACC source said. The nine others, are being investigated under suspicion of having given the bribes.
An MACC spokesman said one of the reasons for the arrest was leading an extravagant life and conducting illegal transactions which amounted to millions.
The MACC action on RMN staff comes after last year’s operation against Royal Malaysian Customs staff who smuggled billions in lost taxes. There was also the case with 26 officers arrested near Malaysia-Thailand border for alleged links with petrol and diesel smugglers in Durian Burung, Kedah. Last week the chief executive officer of a Felda subsidiary was arrested together with a businessman, in his 40s, who acted as the middleman, over the purchase of a RM40 million hotel in Port Dickson, Negri Sembilan.
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Naval Today Staff, Image: Wikipedia, MACC