Search This Blog

Friday, March 3, 2017

Ex-NRD staff gets 156 years' jail for 'selling' citizenship to Suluks

A former employee of the Malacca National Registration Department (NRD) was yesterday sentenced to a whopping 156 years behind bars for "giving" citizenship to Suluks.

Harian Metro reported that former administrative assistant Ahmad Zakri Raman, 31, had pleaded guilty to the charges.

"The accussed's guilty plea has saved the court time and money.

“But at the same time, I agree with the deputy public prosecutor's remark that giving out citizenship is a serious offence,” said Malacca Sessions Court Judge Ahmad Sazali Omar before sentencing.

According to the report, Ahmad Zakri was seen sobbing in court as soon as the sentence was read.

The accused was slapped with a total of 32 charges. For the first 17 charges, he reportedly received RM88,000 from 22 Suluk individuals at a rate of RM4,000 each as bribe to issue them identification cards.

For charges 18 to 32, he was accused of hacking into the NRD's system to change the status of 22 individuals to citizens, using the passwords of four department employees.

The offences were committed between March 2014 and April last year.

Deputy public prosecutor Siti Ruvinna Mohd Rawi asked for a deterrent sentence, saying it involved the exclusive rights of Malaysians, and could invite terrorist threats, citing the 2013 Lahad Datu intrusion.

The judge then ordered Ahmad Zakri to serve three years in prison for each count of the first 17 offences, and seven years in prison for each subsequent offence.

Although this totaled the time behind bars to 156 years, Ahmad Zakri would only serve 10 years in prison as the terms were ordered to run concurrently from the date of his arrest in September last year.

No comments:

Post a Comment