Duo jailed and fined for bribing Immigration officers

JOHOR BARU: Two men who pleaded guilty to bribing Immigration officers in Segamat were jailed and fined RM10,000 by the Johor Baru Sessions Court.

Pee Thian Kat, 50, was jailed seven days while Tan Yap Sai, 55, was jailed three days after the charges were read out before judge Mohamad Haldar Abdul Aziz.

According to the charge sheet, Pee who is a clerk for a construction company, offered a bribe of RM1,000 to Segamat Immigration officer Mohd Ahfaizal Abd Rahman as an inducement for not arresting his Bangladeshi employee Md Majum@Md Rony who had no legal identification documents with him.

Meanwhile, Tan, who is a rubber estate owner, offered a bribe of RM50 to Segamat Enforcement assistant officer Mohd Fairus Mohd Idrus, 33, with the same intention after his Indonesian employee Sukono Mirun was arrested.

The foreign workers were arrested under Section 6(1)(c) of the Immigration Act 1959/63 (Amend­ment 2002).

The offences were committed at a Jalan Buloh Kasap roadblock in Batu Anam, Segamat, at 11.30am and 11am on May 5.

Pee and Tan were charged under Section 17(b) of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act 2009 and punishable under Section 24 of the same Act which carries a maximum jail term of 20 years and a fine of five times the bribe amount or RM10,000, whichever was higher.

In their pleas, both of them asked for a minimum punishment as they were the sole breadwinners of their families.

MACC’s Norsyarina Raizan prosecuted while both the accused were not represented.

Judge Mohamad Haldar set the fine at RM10,000 for both accused in default six months’ jail.

They paid the fine.