FEDERAL COURT UPHOLDS EIGHT-YEAR JAIL TERM ON FOUR INDONESIANS FOR MIGRANT SMUGGLING

PUTRAJAYA, Jan 6 (Bernama) -- The Federal Court today upheld an eight-year prison sentence imposed on four Indonesian nationals for smuggling 29 migrants into Malaysia.

A three-judge panel led by Chief Justice Datuk Seri Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh dismissed the appeals brought by Zali Saad, 46, Tengku Mohd Bashah Tengku Husin, 34, Adi Bastian Bustami, 50, and Mohd Yusof Husin, 40, against their prison sentences.

Justice Wan Ahmad Farid, who sat with Federal Court judges Datuk Lee Swee Seng and Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah, ordered the four Indonesians to serve their prison sentence from the date of their arrest on Jan 26, 2023.

The four men had pleaded guilty in the Shah Alam High Court on June 11, 2024, to a charge of smuggling the migrants aboard an unregistered fibreglass boat about 3.4 nautical miles from Tanjung Rhu, Sepang, at 10.30 pm on Jan 26, 2023. They were each sentenced to eight years in prison.

They appealed to the Court of Appeal, seeking a reduction in their sentences but on Jan 3 last year, the appellate court’s three-man bench dismissed their appeals and upheld the eight-year jail term, prompting the four men to appeal to the Federal Court.

The facts of the case revealed that personnel from the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA), who were conducting operations in the waters of the Straits of Melaka and Negeri Sembilan, discovered the four men along with three Myanmar nationals and 26 Indonesians aboard a boat attempting to enter Malaysia illegally.

In today’s proceedings, their counsel Collin Arvind Andrew requested a reduction of the sentence to seven years.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Abdul Malik Ayob argued that both the High Court and Court of Appeal did not err in their decisions.

-- BERNAMA