SEA Games Football Match-Fixing: Four Accused Face Additional Charges

Four men who were earlier charged for allegedly conspiring to fix a SEA Games football match faced additional charges on Friday (Jun 5).

Rajendran R Kurusamy, 55, was charged with agreeing with the other three accused to offer money to at least seven other players in Timor Leste’s SEA Games football team so that they would lose the match against Malaysia on May 30.

He was also charged with giving S$1,000 to Orlando Marques Henriques Mandes, the Technical Director of the Football Federation of Timor Leste, to arrange for his football team to lose the Malaysia match. He was previously accused of agreeing to give S$15,000 to Orlando as a reward.

Orlando was given two additional charges, for accepting the S$1,000 and offering money to the said players in his football team.

Former Timor Leste football player Moises Natalino De Jesus and Indonesian Nasiruudin were given an additional charge each for conspiring to bribe the football players.

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Navin Naidu said that the prosecution had asked for bail not to be extended to the four accused as there was a high risk of them absconding Singapore, given previous incidents of match-fixers doing so.

DPP Navin was also worried that letting the accused parties out on bail meant that they could tamper with other witnesses. It was previously reported that not all persons-of-interest have been apprehended.

No plea from the accused parties was taken by the court. However, Orlando objected to the prosecution’s no-bail request, saying that he needed to look for a lawyer.

He also said that he did not consent to the offences he was alleged to have committed and that it was “just an offer made to the players”. Orlando claimed there was no black-and-white agreement signed pertaining to the alleged offences.

Rajendran, who is represented by defence counsel Edmond Pereira, will have his case heard on Jun 10, where his lawyer will make a submission for bail to be offered. The prosecution maintained their stance for bail not to be offered.

No bail was offered to the other three accused, who are unrepresented. Their case is fixed for a pre-trial conference on Jun 15 at 3pm.

 

Source: www.channlenewsasia.com

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