SHAH ALAM: A High Court awarded RM322,000 in damages to a former Permodalan BSN Berhad chief executive officer after he 'overstayed' in prison for 74 days.
Justice Hadhariah Syed Ismail ordered four goverment officials and the Government to pay the sum with interests to Ahmad Skhri Ramli for his unlawful detention.
The court also fixed costs at RM15,000.
Hadhariah said the prison should have taken the initiative to verify the plaintiff's verbal complaint when he claimed that he had already paid partial sum of the fine imposed on him.
"The defendants' excuse that they did not know that the fine was paid is unacceptable because they did not want to know and were unwilling to help.
"If you could not believe the plaintiff's claim, why can't you check with the court? The defendants can simply call the court and ask for the receipt to be faxed," she said.
On Feb 15, Ahmad Skhri, who is now a part-time consultant, named Prisons Department director Datuk Zulkifli Omar, Kajang Prison director Datuk Al Zafry Mohamed Al Nassif and Bentong Prison director Mohd Sakeri Dollah as defendents in his suit.
He also named the former Home Ministry secretary-general Tan Sri Mahmood Adam and the Government in the suit.
According to his lawyer, Muhammad Rafique Rashid Ali, his client was convicted of two counts of abetment in the shortselling of 202,000 share units of AKN Technology Berhad six years ago.
Ahmad Shkri was fined RM300,000 for both charges in default six months jail each by a Sessions Court. He managed to pay RM220,000.
He was supposed to be released on Dec 2, 2009 after serving jail time following a High Court's dismissal of his appeal and his failure to pay the remaining RM80,000.
However, he was only released on Feb 18, 2010.
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