BUTTERWORTH: Three Myanmar nationals were charged at the Magistrate's (Municipal) Court here today with kidnapping a fellow countryman and asking for RM3,000 in ransom last month.
No pleas were recorded from Taher Ahmad Mustafa Ahmad, 42, Abdul Rahim Ali Husson, 38, and Mostaque Ahmed Rofiq Ahmed, 36.
They nodded to indicate they understood the charge which was read to them in Bahasa Melayu before Magistrate Noor Farah Hazwani Osman.
The trio, together with another still at large, were jointly charged with kidnapping a fellow countryman, Saddik Mohammad Jalil, with the intention to get a RM3,000 ransom, at a house in Kampung Masjid, Sungai Layar, in Sungai Petani, Kedah between 8.10pm on Oct 21 and 8.25pm on Oct 24.
They were charged under Section 3 of the Kidnapping Act 1961 (Act 365) read together with Section 34 of the Penal Code.
Noor Farah then fixed Dec 3 for mention of the case pending the chemist report.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Nurameera Shahrul Azrin prosecuted while the three were unrepresented.
It was reported that police detained nine individuals, including a woman, to assist investigations into the kidnapping of a Myanmar man in front of factory in Batu Kawan on Oct 21.
The nine — seven Myanmar men, a local man and a woman — aged 21 to 48, were arrested in a series of raids in Penang and Kedah recently.
Police received a report from a local woman, that her employee, a 26-year-old Rohingya man, was kidnapped by two men using a Perodua Viva car in front of the factory at 10.43pm on Oct 21.
Following the report, police conducted an investigation and managed to rescue the victim at a house in Kampung Sungai Layar, Sungai Petani in Kedah last Monday.
Police confiscated the Perodua Viva and RM3,000 in cash, believed to have been paid by the victim's family.
The seven Myanmar nationals had valid United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) cards.