Five Customs officers charged with bribery

Five senior officers from the Royal Malaysian Customs were charged in court today with 24 counts of accepting bribes totalling RM76,000.

The five – Mohd Ariffin Zakaria, 56, Sohaizan Othman, 39, Ishak Abu, 54, Azlee Mohd Yusof, 48, and Hizam Abd Ghani, 56, were charged in three different courtrooms at the Special Corruption Sessions Court in Kuala Lumpur.

Those charged under Section 16(a)(A) of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act 2009 were Mohd Ariffin (nine charges), Sohaizan (five charges) and Hizam (one charge) and Azlee (eight charges) while Ishak was charged under Section 165 of the Penal Code with one count of bribery.

The five were charged before Sessions Court judges Allaudeen Ismail, Mohd Nasir Nordin and Rosbiahanin Arifin over the smuggling of liquor to avoid duties.

They all claimed trial to the charges.

The courts fixed Oct 20 for re-mention of all cases except for Sohaizan’s, which was set for Oct 23.

Last Friday, Mohd Ariffin, Azlee, Sohaizan and Hizam had been charged with the same offences at the Shah Alam Special Corruption Sessions Court.