KUALA LUMPUR: A former security services company director was sentenced to two days' jail and fined RM50,000 by the Sessions Court for accepting a RM10,000 bribe to settle a human trafficking case against a "Datuk", two years ago.
Judge Azura Alwi handed down the sentence on Noorasyikin A. Latiff, 40, a cancer patient, after the accused changed her plea to guilty.
The court ordered the accused to serve three years jail, should she fail to pay the fine.
Noorasyikin was charged with receiving the bribe from Nur Aisyah Roling, through Mohd Rozaini Radzi, as an inducement to settle a case involving the latter's husband Baharuddin Hamzah.
Baharuddin, a businessman with the title "Datuk", was charged at the Petaling Jaya Sessions Court on Dec 8, 2016 with eight counts of trafficking Indonesians, who were forced to work as restaurant workers.
Noorasyikin committed the offence at the vicinity of Victoria Station restaurant in Jalan Ampang, here, at about 3.30pm on Dec 15, 2016.
The charge under Section 16(a)(A) of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act 2009, provides imprisonment for not more than 20 years and a fine of not less than five times the amount of the bribe, or RM10,000, whichever is higher, upon conviction.
According to the facts of the case, on Oct 30, 2016, the accused had met Aisyah at the vicinity of the Immigration headquarters in Putrajaya and told the latter to pay a sum of money if she wanted the case against her husband settled.
On Dec 15, the same year, the accused hired Rozaini and paid him RM200 to collect the money she asked for from Aisyah.
In pleading for leniency, counsel Munawar Kabir Zainal Abidin who represented Noorasyikin said his client who is a mother of three is suffering from breast cancer and emotional disturbance.
"My client is also a first time offender," he said added.
MACC deputy public prosecutor Mohd Asnawi Abu Hanipah requested for the court to consider the fact that the court had spent a year and four months for the proceeding of the case and seven witnesses had been called to testify.