JOHOR BARU: A salesman has been charged at the Sessions Court here with trafficking three people, two of them teenagers, for labour exploitation.
Vincent Sak Zhan Sheng, 22, pleaded not guilty when the charges were read to him before judge Hidayatul Syuhada Shamsudin on Wednesday (Nov 26).
Sak was charged under Section 12 of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants (Atipsom) Act 2007 with trafficking a 26-year-old Malaysian man for labour exploitation through deception.
He was also charged under Section 14 of the same Act for trafficking a 16-year-old boy and a 15-year-old girl for the same purpose.
According to the charge sheets, Sak committed the offences with five others at Taman Lagenda Putra in Kulai between April 1 and May 25 this year.
Deputy public prosecutor Amirah Tasnim Saleh requested that the court set bail at RM25,000 for each offence.
She also urged the court to impose additional conditions, including prohibiting the accused from disturbing the victims and witnesses, surrendering his passport, and reporting to the nearest police station once a month.
Sak's lawyer Datin Freda Sabapathy asked the court to set a lower bail amount, saying he is the sole caretaker of his widowed mother.
She also requested that the court not impose the condition for her client to surrender his passport, as he frequently travels to China for work.
However, Amirah Tasnim asked the court to maintain the passport condition to avoid any flight risk, adding that the accused could apply to the court each time he needed to use his passport.
The judge later set bail at RM10,000 for each offence, with the three conditions requested by the prosecution, and fixed Jan 13 for next mention.
