Kota Kinabalu: A businessman and his two sons were fined a total of RM9,000 on Wednesday after they pleaded guilty to rioting at the Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA) two years ago.
The incident stemmed from the tearing of a picture of former Chief Minister Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal.
Datu Mohd Akjan Ali Muhammad, 64, Mahathir Datu Mohd Akjan, 29, and Mohd Ghazali Hanif Mohd Akjan, 23, admitted before Magistrate Lovely Natasha Charles to have caused a riot along with two accomplices still at large at 7.45pm, on Jan 19, 2020 in front of the Malindo Air Counter at KKIA.
They were each ordered to pay a fine of RM3,000 or 13 months jail.
The amended charge under Section 147 of the Penal carries a jail term of up to two years or fine or both on conviction.
Magistrate Lovely in meting out the sentence held that the court had taken consideration that all three accused had pleaded guilty without having to go for trial saving the court time and expenses, and that they were first offenders.
“However, due to the public interest and nature of the offence as well as rampancy of the offence, I do not agree that a lenient fine be imposed but since the Section’s punishable sentence is not mandatory for custodial sentence and that the prosecution had agreed that no custodial sentence be imposed...only a fine, I hereby then impose on each of the accused a fine of RM3,000 in default 13 months imprisonment,” she held.
Counsel Nurul Rafeeqa Afdul Mutolip, representing the three, requested for leniency and applied for the lowest fine of RM1,500 for each of them on the grounds that they were first offenders with no previous convictions, that they were local Mykad holders, married with young children with financial constraints due to the Covid-19 pandemic and that they had pleaded guilty without full trial which saved the court time and expense.
Nurul, earlier informed the court that prior to Wednesday the defence had submitted a plea bargain application on sentencing and that pursuant to a letter from the prosecution’s office dated Nov 10, 2021, the prosecution agreed to the plea bargain application that the court may impose the sentence of fine only with liberty of the magistrate to decide on the amount without minimal limitation imposed with condition that all three accused plead guilty without full trial.
Nurul further said that the three also extended their apologies to the court and also to the complainant Wan Mohd Azri @ Papagomo for the said incident had gone overboard never intending for the matter to escalate how it did.
“They are remorseful of their actions and undertake to not repeat the same offence again,” said Nurul, adding that the trio originally did not have intention to cause such nuisance as one of them, Akjan, had prior to the incident went to the KKIA airport police station to make a police report declaring their intention to ask the complainant to apologise for his acts during the election campaign.
Nurul also said that the medical report cited that no injuries were inflicted on the complainant.
Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Siti Hajar Mazlan applied for a maximum fine taking into consideration that the complainant suffered soft tissue injury over the neck and left hand; that their act threatened public harmony and security; that public interest prevails over private interest and to send a message to public that it was a serious offence.
Meanwhile, DPP Siti Hajar in presenting the facts of the case, said that a complainant, one Wan Muhammad Azri Wan Deris, lodged a police report on Jan 20, 2020 at 2.31am claiming that at about 7.45pm on Jan 19, the same year, he was beaten up by a group of men in front of the Malindo Air counter at KKIA.
Initial police reports found that at that time the complainant was queuing to check-in to board a flight to Kuala Lumpur when he was suddenly attacked by a group punching him in the head, hands and back of his body.
According to the complainant, one of the men punched him in the face, causing him to almost fall, said the prosecution, adding that the complainant tried to flee but fell in the area near the counter and was subsequently beaten up by the group.
Police investigations revealed that the group had forced the complainant to make a public apology to Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal as Sabah Chief Minister at that time over the complainant’s action of tearing Shafie’s picture during the Kimanis Parliamentary by-election campaign at Membakut town on Jan 16 the same year at 4.40pm.
According to the prosecution, the complainant was one of the Malaysian Umno Youth excos who came to Sabah on Jan 16, 2020 to help Barisan Nasional machinery campaign and that on Jan 17, the same year, the complainant along with several others in the BN machinery had run a campaign by tearing up pictures of Shafie.
The said action angered some parties including Akjan, who released a video lasting 4:04 minutes asking the complainant to apologise for the action before the complainant left Sabah, said the prosecution, adding that Akjan, Mahathir and Ghazali were then detained on Jan 20, 2020.
On July 16, 2020, the trio pleaded not guilty to the charge under Section 147 of the Penal Code, and were released on bail.
The court on Tuesday (March 22) revoked the warrant of arrest against the three issued on March 15 this year, following their absence for further mention of their case on that day.
