SABAH: A 44-year-old Filipino charged of smuggling 16 illegal immigrants into Malaysia. However, no plea was taken from Saring Osman after the charge was read before Sessions Court Judge Azreena Aziz.
Reportedly, Saring was accused of smuggling the illegal immigrants by transporting them from the Philippines through a vessel on Feb 6 at the Tanjung Berungus, off Kudat waters.
The offence under Section 26A of the Anti-Trafficking in Person and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants Act (Atipsom) 2007 carries a jail term of up to 15 years, or fine, or both, on conviction.
Azreena ordered the case to be transferred to the High Court following an application by the prosecution. Saring’s plea would be recorded at the High Court. He was ordered remanded further pending the disposal of his case.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Nurun Nazifah Muhammad Iyen from the Malaysia Maritime Enforcement Agency appeared for the prosecution while Saring was not represented.
In the same court, a Filipina was sentenced to a year’s jail for having a fake IMM13 document.
Siser Hassan, 38, pleaded guilty to having the fake document bearing the serial number IP-12081-16018 at 2.30am on Feb 4 this year at a bus stop in Taman Putera Jaya, Telipok.
Azreena ordered Siser to serve the jail sentence from the date of his arrest and be referred to the Immigration Department upon serving his jail sentence.
