Malaysia to refer to Asean on haze issue; six claim trial to kidnapping, ransoming S'pore man

 

Haze

• Malaysia will go through the Asean secretariat to tackle the transboundary haze, which has returned over the past weeks and is believed to be from wildfires in Indonesia.

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  Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan said Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability Minister Arthur Joseph Kurup will also write directly to his Indonesian counterpart regarding the matter.

  

  “We believe that Asean is the best mechanism to resolve problems between member states and we feel that the Asean secretariat is the most effective mechanism in this situation,” Mohamad was reported as saying by Bernama in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei today.

  Parts of Sarawak, including Sri Aman, Sarikei, Kuching, Samarahan, Sibu, Samalaju, Bintulu, Mukah, and Kapit continued to record unhealthy air quality levels due to haze from West Kalimantan, Indonesia.

Court 

• Six individuals, including a woman, pleaded not guilty at the Johor Bahru Sessions Court today to a charge of kidnapping a Singaporean man, 32, to obtain a ransom of S$20,000 (RM63,000), earlier this month.

  M Balamurugan, 46, K Saravanan, 40, P Sri Devi, 41, G Puganeswaran, 38, S Gobinath, 38, and X Adwin Nicholas, 41, claimed trial after the charge was read out before judge Nor Aziati Jaafar.

  

  According to the charge as reported by Bernama, they are accused of kidnapping the victim in front of a church in Skudai at around 2pm on Aug 8.

  The charges were brought under Section 3 of the Kidnapping Act 1961, read together with Section 34 of the Penal Code, which provides for a prison sentence of up to 40 years and whipping.

• A Singaporean security guard was sentenced to 14 days in prison and fined RM7,000 by the Johor Bahru Magistrate’s Court today after pleading guilty to a charge of insulting Islam last month.

  Magistrate A Shaarmini ordered Anim Atam, 56, to serve the jail term from the date of his arrest last Tuesday.

  

  He was accused of deliberately wounding the religious feelings of another person by uttering words insulting Islam between Jalan Tun Razak and Jalan Meldrum in Johor Bahru at around 5pm on July 30, which were overheard by another man.

  The foreigner was charged under Section 298 of the Penal Code, which carries a maximum jail term of one year, a fine, or both. - Mkini