Bung Moktar escapes jail time, fined RM1,000

SHAH ALAM (Star) - Kinabatangan MP Datuk Bung Moktar Radin escaped jail time when the Syariah High Court here accepted five out of 13 petitions he submitted in his appeal against a one-month jail sentence by a lower Syariah Court and imposed a RM1,000 fine or 6 months in jail, in default, for polygamy without consent.

Bung hugged his second wife actress Zizie Izette A. Samad after the decision was passed.

Both were in tears. Speaking to reporters later, Bung described the amended sentence as "a Ramadan gift".

On April 20, Bung Mokhtar pleaded guilty to committing polygamy with his second wife, actress Zizie Izette A. Samad without the court's consent and was sentenced to a month's jail by the Gombak Timur Lower Syariah Court on May 19.

He was also slapped with a RM1,000 fine or one month's jail in default on a second charge of abetting Zizie to marry without the consent of a Syariah registrar.

Zizie, 32, was fined RM1,000 or one month's jail in default for marrying without the consent of a Syariah registrar.

Zizie's three brothers and Bung Mokhtar's two friends were also fined RM1,000 each in default six months' jail for abetting them by becoming their witnesses and wali (guardian).

However, on June 11, the Kuala Lumpur Syariah High Court declared the marriage valid and the couple was asked to register their marriage.

They were married in Taman Melawati, Gombak on Dec 16 last year.