Fadley Faisal
The Magistrate’s Court has ordered a social welfare report to be furnished on a woman facing jail and fines following her conviction for falsifying immigration documents.
Seeing that the report is still pending, Senior Magistrate Hajah Ervy Sufitriana binti Haji Abdul Rahman yesterday adjourned handing sentence to local 48-year-old Alina binti Mohd Ariffin to March, with the day to be confirmed after going through the report.
The Anti-Corruption Bureau discovered that Alina, a freelance agent with no permanent employment, had submitted six application forms with falsified information to a registration clerk at the Immigration and National Registration Department (INRD) to apply for green identity cards on behalf of Indonesian and Filipino citizens.
The court also found that she was aware that the foreign nationals were never employed as drivers or domestic workers, and that she had intended to mislead the INRD between January 2008 to June 2009.
The defendant was first produced in court on May 4, 2018, where she pleaded not guilty to the six charges pressed by Prosecutor Shamshuddin Kamaluddin under Section 6(c), Chapter 131 of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The trial commenced on October 10, 2019, with the prosecution calling in nine witnesses.
The court found the prosecution to have proven the case beyond reasonable doubt on four charges, and acquitted her on two charges.
The prosecution could not call-in “material witnesses” to testify for the two charges as they had left the country.
Despite the prescribed penalty of a maximum imprisonment of seven years and a BND30,000 fine, the court exercised its discretionary powers to give consideration on the defendant’s eligibility for a probation and/or community service order.
