WORLD BRIEFING / MALAYSIA
A Malaysian court acquitted a top tourism official charged with accepting free medical treatment in exchange for possible contracts, news reports said.
Mirza Mohammed Taiyab, head of Malaysia’s tourism promotion board, has been one of the most senior bureaucrats to face corruption charges in recent years amid pledges by the government to stamp out graft. Few prominent officials have been convicted so far.
Mirza pleaded innocent in August last year to a charge of accepting free dental treatment, worth almost $4,200, in 2005 from a company that he allegedly gave contracts to. Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court Judge Zainal Abidin Kamarudin ruled that the prosecution had not proved its case against Mirza, The Star and New Straits Times newspapers reported.
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