Lawyer: Charges against Tharmendran baseless

(Malaysiakini) New charges have been levied against former airman N Tharmendran in the Sessions court today, this time for alleged money laundering in connection with the 2007 theft of two jet fighter engines.

He was slapped with three separate charges while company director K Rajandran Prasad, who is jointly charged with the theft, faces five separate counts on the same charge.

Tharmendran (right) is accused of having laundered a total of RM62,000 on three separate occasions between March and April 2008 at a bank in Subang Jaya.

All the offences were alleged to have been committed at Standard Chartered Bank's Subang Jaya branch.

For these offences, he has been charged under Section 4(1)(a) of the Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA) and can be jailed up to five years and fined up o RM5 million, if convicted.

Meanwhile, Rajendran Prasad was accused of money laundering involving RM437,319.50 at HSBC Bank's Subang Jaya branch between April 18 and May 29, 2008.

Both accused denied the charges.

Already convulated case

The latest accusations add yet another twist to the already convoluted case facing Tharmendran, who had claimed that the armed forces had tortured him in connection with the jet engine theft.

His lead counsel, N Surendran, said the prosecution had intended the new charges to be heard together with Tharmendran's earlier one, but the defence had submitted against the application.

Judge Hayatul Akmal Abd Aziz set Sept 6 for mention to decide whether or not the new charges should be heard together with the earlier ones.

Surendran (left) said the new charges are fishy as there had been no prior investigation by the police.

"We believe someone gave instructions to charge Tharmendran, because after the charge was read out the police wanted to take him to record a statement.

"The charges are completely baseless and we believe this is being done to simply persecute Tharmendran, since he had exposed his torture by the military," he told Malaysiakini.

Tharmendran is currently being detained at the Sungai Buloh prison, after he retracted his bail, fearing possible reprisal from his former employers after making his torture claims.

The former air force sergeant is also facing a court martial for alleged dishonest misappropriation of public property and has the alternative charge of accepting stolen property filed against him.