Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur High Court on Thursday slapped 164 charges on the leaders of a local pro-Palestinian NGO for embezzling some 85 million ringgit (US$17 million) sourced from public donations.
The move came after the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) froze dozens of bank accounts belonging to Aman Palestin in November, as part of a probe into long-standing allegations of funds abuse, which uncovered four 1kg gold bars at the non-profit organisation’s office.
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Aman Palestin’s executive chairman, Abdullah Zaik Abdul Rahman, and chief executive officer, Awang Sufian Awang Piut, both pleaded not guilty to 161 charges of criminal breach of trust, cheating and money laundering, amounting to 79 million ringgit.
Meanwhile, its director Khairudin Mohd Ali pleaded not guilty to three charges of money laundering amounting to 6 million ringgit.
If convicted, they face a maximum jail sentence of 20 years for each charge of breach of trust, up to 15 years for each money-laundering charge, and up to 10 years for each of the cheating charges, aside from fines of not less than five times the offence amount.
The court spent more than 90 minutes reading through the 89-page summary of charges before Judge Anita Harun.
Aman Palestin’s chair and chief executive were each released on 1 million ringgit bail (US$210,000), while the director’s bail was set at 200,000 ringgit.
Formed in 2004, Aman Palestin aims to channel aid and look out for the welfare and human rights of Palestinians, according to the group’s website.
The NGO said its activities include providing emergency, welfare and humanitarian aid to Palestinians for as long as they remain in conflict with Israel.
News of the indictment appalled many Malaysians, who felt betrayed by the organisation claiming to be working to aid Palestinians.
“I still cannot believe the little money I had to spare that was supposed to be sent to aid Palestinians all those years ago was diverted into some [expletive]’s bank account,” said X user Amirul Ashraf.
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The group was thrust under the spotlight following the Israeli retaliation to the Hamas incursion into Israeli territories on October 7 last year, after the Palestinian ambassador in Kuala Lumpur, Walid Abu Ali, asked sympathetic Malaysians to donate through funds set up by the Malaysian government, alleging donations via NGOs had not reached Palestinians.
Aman Palestin’s chair Abdullah Zaik rubbished Walid’s comment, saying he had misled the Malaysian public to be sceptical towards NGOs such as his.
“We do not channel [donations] through the Palestinian embassy in Malaysia,” Abdullah said in November, addressing the seizure of their funds by MACC.
The group’s lawyer, Rafique Rashid Ali, who was present, also denied the NGO had misused any of the donations it had collected, including keeping funds as gold bars, saying it was allowed under the organisation’s constitution.
“It is allowed under the power given to the board of directors of Aman Palestine … gold is valuable and easy to convert to cash before it can be used as donation funds,” Rafique said.
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