PETALING JAYA: Fourteen members of the Nicky Gang will spend the next two weeks in jail until their case is transferred to the High Court.Their bail was denied by the Sessions Court here.
The suspects were among 16 members of the gang who were earlier charged in the same court for involvement in organised crime, which carries a prison sentence of not less than five years and not more than 20 years in jail, if found guilty.
The gang’s alleged leader, Datuk Seri Nicky Liow Soon Hee, and his personal assistant Niu Zhe were charged in absentia as both are still at large.
Nicky’s brothers, Datuk Liow Wei Kin and Datuk Liow Wei Loon, were among those charged.
The other were Lee Han Keat, Lee Kam Onn, Datuk Lee Kum Wong, Eee Eng Chee, Dr Jovian Joris Tan Chern Chian, Datuk Loo Siew Chin, Lim Kang Li and Datuk Seri Andrew Lim Kim Ming.
The other four are Chinese nationals – Wang Yu Jun and three women Huang Lei, Gu Xing Qiong and Jiang Xue.
No plea was recorded after the charge was read out to them separately in Mandarin before judge Jamaludin Mat as the case comes under the jurisdiction of the High Court.
All of them, except Kim Ming, were accused of becoming members of “Geng Nicky” at SetiaWalk, Persiaran Wawasan, Pusat Bandar Puchong, between Jan 1,2017, and March 20,2021.
Kim Ming, an auditor, was charged under Section 130W of the Penal Code for collaborating with the gang.
The suspects were represented by a defence team comprising Datuk Rajpal Singh, Salim Bashir, Datuk Krishnan Nair, M. Hafiz, Salehuddin Salleh and Datuk Jensen Chua.
Rajpal said the defence had argued for bail as some of the suspects were women, pregnant and had mental illnesses.
“Several reasons were given and they are not flight risks. However, the court did not decide in our favour, ” he said.
Meanwhile, Rajpal said the prosecution had asked for a three-month period for the process of transferring their cases to the High Court to be completed.
“We objected to the three months. We said it’s too long, abuse of power and prejudicial to the accused, ” he said.
Rajpal said the court then decided to set a new case mention date on April 22.
Nicky Liow had made headlines recently after his large-scale money laundering operations and commercial crime cases were finally busted by the police.
