Immigration officer among 16 men charged with becoming members of organised criminal gang

All of them, aged between 26 and 55, were charged with committing the offence at Northeast area, between Sept 2019 and June 17, 2020.

They included 13 Rohingyas, namely, Syed Husen Syed Ahmed, 39; Mohd Ayas Hussain, 39; Mohamad Rafik Abdul, 35; Mohamad Ayub Sunail, 55; Karim Oli Ahmad, 26; Shamsul Alam Zakaria, 38; Mohammad Rashid Mohd Shobir, 30; Nor Mustafa Kaloo, 40; Mohd Hashim Osi Rahman, 39; Mohamad Zubir Abd Shukur, 44; Nur Mohamed Mugul Ahmed, 37; Mohiddin Mohd Rafiq, 48, and Abdullah @ Maung Hla Wing, 42, who holds a Malaysian permanent resident status.

The three others are locals, including the Immigration officer, Mohammad Jafnizal Mohammad Jafferi, 34, while the other two are Amran Che Man, 42, and Omar Rashid, 43.

However, no plea was recorded from all the accused after the charge was read out to them separately before Judge Norsalha Hamzah.

The charge was framed under Section 130V (1) of the Penal Code, which provides an imprisonment for up to 20 years, upon conviction.

All the accused were not allowed bail and the court set Sept 8 for mention.

Deputy public prosecutor Yusaini Amer Abdul Karim prosecuted, while lawyers Datuk Naran Singh, Mohd Rafiee Nordin, Abdul Rahim Md Yusuf, Norizan Yaacub, P. Selvaraj, Y. Anbananthan and V. Parthipan represented 12 of the accused, with the other four accused were unrepresented.