Bribery: Immigration officer fined RM3,000, jailed 30 days

KUCHING: A Special Corruption Court here yesterday sentenced a state Immigration Department officer to 30 days in prison and RM3,000- fine in default a month in jail for accepting bribe.

The accused, Emily Ngayan Beliang, 36, pleaded guilty to the charge framed against her under Section 165 of the Penal Code, for ‘obtaining valuable things from someone without consideration’.

She changed her plea to guilty at the defence stage after the presiding judge Nixon Kennedy Kumbong ruled there was a prima facie case against her, established by the prosecutor.

She admitted to have accepted RM300 through her Maybank account on Dec 13 last year.

The transaction was done via online transfer.

In the same court room, two other officers of the same department were discharged and acquitted from a similar offence.

Nixon made the decision on Benjamin Morsit, 33, and Khairul Nizam Omar, 41, after he was satisfied that the prosecution had failed to prove prima facie case against them.

They were discharged and acquitted without calling for their defence.

Benjamin was accused of receiving RM200 on Dec 13 last year while Khairul was accused of receiving RM1,000 on Dec 19.

They and eight other officers were detained last year during an operation to nab illegal immigrants to the state.

Six of them were charged after the expiry of their remand order while three others still have their case pending.

According to Steven Beti, the counsel for the trio ( Emily, Benjamin and Khairul), the money Benjamin received was to pay for a DVD player he sold to the complainant while Khairul had borrowed money from the same person (complainant).

Also representing them was lawyer Gerald Donald.