By Dorcas Ting
SIBU, Oct 1: The High Court here dismissed an appeal by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) against a Sessions Court’s acquittal of two immigration officers of charges of receiving and obtaining gratification and abetting to receive gratification.
Raffian Alias, 38, and Rita Rubiana De Rozar, 47, were acquitted by the Sessions Court on April 16, 2019. However, the MACC had failed to file Notice of Appeal within 14 days from the time of judgement.
The MACC only filed in the Notice of Appeal on August 28, 2019, after the stipulated period to file the said notice. On August 28, 2019, the MACC lodged their Second Notice of Appeal.
The Court checked with the Case Management System (CMS) and found no fault and decided that the officer may not have filed the first set of Notice/s of Appeal.
Judicial Commissioner Christopher Chin Soo Yin is convinced that the Court CMS System is not capable of overlooking the Notice of Appeal. He found that an inexperienced officer may not have filed the Notices of Appeal and the Second set of Notices of Appeal were filed and backdated and no proper reasons were advanced.
The Court, therefore, ruled that the Notices of Appeal are defective and the appeal is dismissed for both cases.
Raffian, the head of the Sibu Immigration Enforcement Unit, was charged under Section 17(a) of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2009 which is punishable under Section 24 of the same Act, and read together with Section 28(1)(c) of the same Act for abetting with Rita Rubiana for the gratification of RM6,000 from one Philip Wong as an inducement for forbearing to do an act in relation to his principal affairs, which is not to take legal action against Wong who was suspected of employing foreign workers without any valid permits which is an offence under Immigration Act 1959/63, at the back of Restaurant Sibu Town Café, at about 8.30 pm on June 26, 2016.
Meanwhile, Rita who is a Sibu Immigration Office, was charged under Section 17(a) of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2009 which is punishable under Section 24 of the same Act for corruptly obtaining a gratification of RM6,000 from Wong at about 10.30 pm on June 25, 2016.
The MACC was represented by DPP Nur Nisla Abd Latif, whereas Raffian and Rita represented by counsels Shankar Ram and Yu Ying Ying. — DayakDaily
