PUTRAJAYA: Two National Anti-Drugs Agency officers began their 15-month jail term today after the Court of Appeal rejected their final appeal for soliciting and accepting bribes from a suspect who was allegedly involved in drug abuse 11 years ago.
Imran Abdullah, 42, and Sharaini Shuib, 57, were also fined RM20,000 each, and lost their jobs following the rejection of their appeal against the conviction and sentence today.
A three-member bench chaired by Hanipah Farikullah said they were satisfied that there was no appealable error that required their intervention.
“The defence had failed to rebut the prosecution’s case,” said Hanipah who sat with Ahmad Nasfy Yasin and Nordin Hassan.
“We also considered all issues raised by the defence before coming to the conclusion that the conviction was safe. Therefore, on the totality of the evidence, we find there is no miscarriage of justice.”
Hanipah said the sentences imposed were also not manifestly excessive to warrant an interference.
“We affirm the High Court ruling and we now issue the committal order against the appellants to begin their sentence from today,” she said.
Imran and Sharaini were jointly charged with soliciting a RM1,000 bribe from S Devendran as an inducement not to propose a preventive detention order under the drug law for alleged involvement in drug abuse.
They were also charged with receiving RM750 from Devendran.
Both offences were committed at a house in Taman Merak Jaya, Simpang Ampat in Seberang Perai Selatan, Penang, between 11.40pm on May 12, 2011 and 12.40am the following day.
The sessions court sentenced them to 15 months’ jail and a RM10,000 fine each for soliciting, and 12 months’ jail and another RM10,000 fine each for accepting the bribe.
However, the trial court ordered the jail terms to run concurrently, meaning they would only serve 15 months.
Deputy public prosecutor Wong Poh Yoke appeared for the prosecution, while M Athimulan appeared for Imran and Ismail Mohamad for Sharaini.