Not guilty plea: Saifulamin (centre) being led out of the Sessions Court in Johor Baru. — Bernama
JOHOR BARU: A medical laboratory technologist was slapped with 25 charges of receiving bribes worth RM16,150 at the Sessions Court here in relation to the urine-tampering case.
Saifulamin Sabran, 52, however, pleaded not guilty after the charges were read before judge Ahmad Kamal Arifin Ismail yesterday.
According to the charge sheet, the accused, who worked at Hospital Sultanah Aminah’s (HSA) Pathology Department, had agreed to receive payment from six bank account holders who acted as middlemen.
The middleman had received money from another six different individuals who transferred between RM500 and RM2,000, paid between Aug 17, 2019 and Jan 19, 2023.
The payments were made at two banks in six different branches around Johor Baru, Kota Tinggi, Kulai and Simpang Renggam.
The offence was framed under Section 165 of the Penal Code for allegedly obtaining valuable things without consideration from a person concerned with his official function, which carries a jail term of up to two years, a fine, or both.
Malaysia Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) prosecution officer Fatin Farhana Ismail and deputy public prosecutor Julaila Jamaludin prosecuted, while the accused was represented by Shaik Saleem SM Daud.
During the proceedings, Fatin Farhana requested bail to be set at RM13,000 with three additional terms.
The terms were not to disturb any witnesses to the case, report himself every month to the Johor Baru MACC office, and to hand over his international passport to the court.
Shaik Saleem, in mitigation, requested a lower bail, saying that the accused is currently taking care of his three children and an unemployed wife.
The court set bail at RM10,000 and April 21 for the case mention. The accused paid the bail.
The Star had previously reported that a medical staff member working with a pathology department at a government hospital in Johor Baru was at the centre of an extensive network involved in providing tampered urine samples in substance abuse cases for a fee of between RM500 and RM1,500.
Caught in the web were 33 policemen of various ranks from almost all of Johor’s 13 police districts.
Investigations revealed that the network had been operational since 2018.
The incident also resulted in the reshuffling of almost 10 medical personnel from HSA’s Pathology Department.
