KOTA KINABALU: A former officer of the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) was charged with 23 counts of submitting false claims amounting to RM53,520 at the Sessions Court here.
Heflin Dino, 36, who appeared before five different courts, pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The charges state that Heflin, an assistant secretary at Suhakam Sabah, allegedly used 23 forged receipts as genuine to make claims related to Suhakam programmes between 2019 and 2021.
The offences, under Section 471 of the Penal Code and punishable under Section 467 of the same Code, carry a penalty of imprisonment for up to 20 years, along with a fine upon conviction.
Section 471 states that anyone who fraudulently or dishonestly uses as genuine any document which he or she knows, or has reason to believe to be a forged document, shall be punished in the same manner as if he or she had forged the document.
All five judges have set Nov 27 for case management, and the accused was granted bail ranging from RM500 to RM5,000 with two local sureties for each charge.
The court also ordered the accused to report to the nearest police station twice a month and to surrender his passport to the court, if he possesses one.
Heflin was represented by counsel Datuk Seri Rakhbir Singh, while deputy public prosecutors Eugenie Meredith Gilbert, Nurul Shafeerah Mad Iskim, Dk Afiqah Alya Ak Johari @ Pg Johari, Sofia S. Sawayan, and Fazriel Fardiansyah Abdul Kadir prosecuted.