Govt officer fined RM2,000 for taking RM700 bribe

JOHOR BARU: An assistant enforcement officer with a government agency has been fined RM2,000 after pleading guilty to accepting a RM700 bribe.

Muhamad Basri Bonari, 43, from the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry’s Muar branch, was charged at a Sessions Court here on Tuesday (March 29) with accepting a bribe of RM700 at 4.55pm on May 10 last year.

He was accused of taking the money from the general manager of a company selling controlled items as an inducement not to take action against it.

The offence under Section 25(1) of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act 2009 is punishable under Section 25(2) of the same Act.

The charge was an alternative one read to the accused in court after he pleaded not guilty to an initial charge.

The alternative charge carries a fine of not more than RM100,000 or imprisonment of not more than 10 years, or both upon conviction.

In mitigation, his lawyer Tan Song Yan pleaded for a fine rather than jail time for Muhamad Basri, citing his health issues as a reason.

“The accused’s wife is a general worker and he has to take care of his three children, elderly parents and 80-year-old mother-in-law.

“He is seeking medical treatment at Hospital Muar where he is awaiting his results to determine his illness,” Tan added.

MACC deputy prosecuting officer Ikhwan Ihsan Jalaludin requested that the court mete out a fair punishment as a lesson to the accused and the public that bribery was a serious offence.

Judge Datuk Ahmad Kamal Arifin Ismail then fined Muhamad Basri RM2,000 in default one month’s jail.

Muhamad Basri paid the fine.