KUANTAN: A Bangladeshi vegetable farm worker who offered a RM100 bribe to a policeman from the Motorcycle Patrol Unit (URB) in Cameron Highlands last month has been sentenced to two months’ imprisonment.
Mobarok Islam, 25, pleaded guilty after the charge was read to him through a Bangladeshi interpreter before Judge Sazlina Safie, who ordered the jail term to begin today.
Mobarok was charged with offering the bribe to a URB member with the rank of lance corporal attached to the Brinchang police station as an inducement for the officer not to take action against him for riding a motorcycle without a licence.
The offence was committed along the main road in front of a vegetable store about 8.20pm on Dec 6 last year.
The charge was framed under Section 214 of the Penal Code, which provides for a prison sentence of up to 10 years, or a fine, or both, for offering or giving something of value to shield an offender from legal punishment.
In mitigation, Mobarok, speaking through the interpreter, pleaded for a lenient sentence, saying he had only recently married and had no family members living in Malaysia.
Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission deputy public prosecutor Ezuain Farhana Ahmad urged the court to impose a deterrent sentence, stressing that it should serve as a warning that the public must never attempt to bribe civil servants to evade enforcement action.
According to the facts of the case, Mobarok, who was riding alone, was stopped by URB officers at the roadside along Jalan Brinchang–Kampung Raja for a routine inspection.
He produced a valid electronic pass issued by the Immigration Department, but when asked for his driving licence, he told the officers that he did not have one.
As the URB member was about to issue a summons, Mobarok attempted to have the matter ‘settled’ by offering RM100 in cash to the lance corporal. Despite repeated warnings, he persisted, leading to his arrest for attempting to offer a bribe.
Sazlina ordered Mobarok to serve two months’ imprisonment from the date of conviction.
© New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd
