Malaysia minister denies taking bribes to free suspects

KUALA LUMPUR, Mar 4 (Reuters) A Malaysian minister today denied having accepted bribes to free three suspected criminals from jail in a second recent case of allegations of corruption involving a senior official, a state news agency said.

The case is likely to embarrass Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi who has vowed to root out corruption as the incident comes within weeks of graft allegations against the nation's anti-corruption chief.

Malaysia's deputy Minister of Internal Security, Mohamad Johari Baharum, said allegations in the press against an unnamed senior politician having been bribed to release suspects was apparently directed at him, but he denied having accepted 5.5 million ringgit (1.57 million dollars).

''The allegation on a web site and in a newspaper report today is apparently directed at me but it has been made without basis and proof,'' Bernama quoted the minister as saying.

The country's anti-corruption agency earlier said it had already launched investigation against the official but refused to name him, according to the newspaper reports.

The suspected criminals are alleged to have been involved in gambling, prostitution and illegal money-lending, Bernama said.

Last week, prime minister urged the police to thoroughly probe allegations about the wealth of the country's anti-corruption chief.

In a letter to police last year, a subordinate of anti-graft chief Zulkipli Mat Noor accused him of corruption.

Zulkipli, a former senior policeman who heads the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA), has dismissed the allegations as baseless.

Abdullah won a strong election mandate in 2004 on a pledge to tackle graft. But despite numerous probes into complaints of official corruption since the premier took office, high-profile prosecutions for graft have been rare.

REUTERS SHB RN1604