SHAH ALAM: Two policemen who claimed they were forced to accept money from a Thai national after being ordered to do so by their superior officer were today jailed 10 days and fined RM5,000 each.
Lance Corporal Shaiful Rizal Osman, 36 and Constable Muhammad Zuhair Mazlan, 28, from the Sungai Buloh police headquarters Narcotics Division, were ordered to serve an additional two months' jail if they failed to pay the fine.
Sessions Court judge Rozilah Salleh sentenced the duo after they pleaded guilty to accepting RM3,000 from the Thai national in December 2019.
Before imposing sentence Rozilah ticked off the accused for blindly following orders without thinking about the implications of their action.
She said the accused, being policemen, should have known better than to commit a wrongdoing.
"You cannot blindly follow orders...if it is a genuine directive then of course you have to do it but if it is something which is legally wrong you should have reported it.
"You should not be in cahoots to commit a crime," she said.
Shaiful Rizal and Muhammad Zuhair were accused iof accepting RM3,000 from Nordin Chebueraheng at the Sungai Buloh police headquarters between 3.40am and 4am on Dec 24, 2019.
The offence, under Section 165 of the Penal Code, carries a maximum two years' jail and fine.
Earlier, counsel Muhammad Amirul Jamaluddin and Mohd Redzuan Mohamed Yusoff who represented both accused pleaded for a lenient sentence after arguing their clients were just following orders given to them by their superior officer.
Muhammad Amirul said both accused were not involved in negotiating for the sum of money from the Thai national.
Instead, he said they were just ordered to accept the money from Nordin by their superior.
"They were told to take the money and keep it. As lower ranked policemen they had no choice but to follow orders," he said.
However, Deputy Public Prosecutor Fadhli Ab Wahab urged the court to impose an appropriate sentence.
He said the case was of public interest and an appropriate sentence was needed as a deterrent to other public servants from committing similar offences. - NST
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