TAWAU: A police officer with the rank of inspector was sentenced to 12 months in prison and fined RM18,000 for receiving a RM3,500 bribe related to a traffic case he handled seven years ago.
The sentence was meted out by the Special Corruption Sessions Court here today.
Judge Jason Juga made the decision against Roney Saimeh Sakah, 44, after finding that the defence failed to rebut the statutory presumption under Section 50(1) of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act (MACC) 2009 on the balance of probabilities for one charge under Section 17(a) of the same act, at the end of the defence case.
"After hearing the mitigation appeal on behalf of the accused, hearing the prosecution's counterarguments, and considering the facts of the case, the nature of the offence and public interest, the accused is sentenced to one year in prison and fined RM18,000.00.
"If he fails to pay the fine, an additional three months' imprisonment will be imposed," he said.
According to the charge, Roney received RM3,500 from Rostam Arsad in April 2017 at the Traffic Branch Office of the Lahad Datu district police headquarters as an inducement to resolve an accident case investigated under Section 41 of the Road Transport Act 1987 and to avoid charging the case in court.
For this offence, the accused was charged under Section 17(a) of the MACC Act 2009, which is punishable under Section 24(1) of the same Act and, if convicted, can be imprisoned for up to 20 years and fined not less than five times the value of the bribe or RM10,000, whichever is higher.
The accused, who began serving with the police force since 2001, was first brought to court on Feb 20, 2020, with the full trial beginning on March 8 last year.
The court heard testimony from 20 prosecution witnesses and three defence witnesses including the accused himself.
Earlier, MACC Prosecutor Dzulkarnain Rousan Hasbi in his argument said that corruption is a serious offence, and is especially so when it involved a police officer as it tarnishes the reputation of other public servants and the accused himself.
He said although the bribe amount in this case does not involve hundreds of thousands of ringgit, the impact of the crime is much worse, especially since it was committed by a police officer whose role is to combat crime and uphold the law.
In mitigation appeal, lawyer Zahir Shah urged the court for a lighter sentence taking into account that his client is now facing financial problems and is has the responsibility of supporting his wife and a child.
He requested for a stay of execution of the sentence while his defence files an appeal against the conviction and sentence in the High Court.
The court granted the request for a stay of execution of the prison sentence but ordered the RM18,000 fine to be paid to the court today, and the appeal must be filed within 14 days from the date of today's conviction.