KOTA KINABALU: A civil servant was sentenced to one-year imprisonment and fined RM255,000 by the Special Corruption Court here for 14 counts of receiving bribes totalling RM50,500.
Awang Saifudin Jumat, 47, was found guilty and convicted by Sessions Court judge Jason Juga today.
The court imposed one year imprisonment and a fine of between RM10,000 and RM50,000 for each charge.
The sentences will run concurrently starting from today.
The court, however, granted Awang's stay of application pending appeal to the High Court, which was submitted right after the sentences were delivered.
The charges stated that Awang, as an executive officer (Grade 41) at the Putatan District Council, had accepted RM50,500 from a woman as an inducement to grant her the repair, supply and service work contract for the council from 2016 to 2018.
The said money was deposited into Awang's bank account between Nov 15, 2017, and Feb 26, 2018, at a Maybank branch in Putatan.
The offences fall under Section 17(a) of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act 2009, which is punishable under Section 24(1) of the same act that provides for a jail term of up to 20 years and a fine five times the bribe amount, upon conviction.
Eighteen prosecution witnesses and three defence witnesses were called during the trial which started in June 2023.
During mitigation submissions earlier, defence lawyer Zahir Shah requested for a lighter sentence.
MACC prosecuting officer Rekhraj Singh urged for a deterrent sentence due to the seriousness of the case and taking into consideration the public interest.
The court maintained Awang's previous bail of RM20,000 with a RM10,000 deposit and a local surety.