Kota Kinabalu: The remaining two individuals, charged with being members of the organised crime group “Geng Upik”, were ordered to enter their defence.
High Court Judge Datuk Dr Lim Hock Leng made the order on former Tawau CID officer Insp Rahman Burijin, 44, and General Operations Force member Sjn Jaisalfian Jaineh @ Zaini, 45, on Thursday.
Advertisement
The court ruled that the prosecution had established a prima facie case against the duo and called them to enter their defence against their respective charges.
The court fixed March 9-13 for their defence.
Twelve witnesses were called to testify at the prosecution’s stage.
Rahman and Jaisalfian allegedly committed the crime between 2015 and 2023.
The charge under Section 130V(1) of the Penal Code carries a jail term of between five years and 20 years on conviction.
Rahman’s counsel informed the court that they would be calling three witnesses in their defence.
Meanwhile, 13 individuals, including a Datuk, who were charged in 2024 with being members of the organised crime group “Geng Upik”, reportedly Sabah’s largest drug syndicate operating from 2015 to 2023, were sentenced by the High Court in 2025 after pleading guilty to a lesser charge.
On March 18 and 20, 2025, 10 of them were each sentence to three years after pleading guilty to the alternative charge of assisting an organised criminal group to further the interest of the group between June 15 and Dec 24, 2023.
The alternative charges under Section 130W of the Penal Code were offered by the prosecution to the 10 individuals following the acceptance of their representation letters to the prosecution.
The 10 were Mahathir Jibarail, 49, Mohd Faridzul Asmahadi, 32, Mohd Fikri Asme, 29, and Manan Ungok @ Salleh, 52, Mohd Fauzie Rablin, 34, Fazrul Bahar, 33, Shahlan Shah Abdul Samad, 38, Mazlan Mahmud, 49, Alkan Abraham, 36, and Norsyafilah Pawawoi, 28.
On June 5, Datuk Maslan Sani, a 42-year-old businessman, who acted as the leader of the ‘Geng Upik’ group, was jailed five years after he pleaded guilty for being members of the “Geng Upik” organised crime group between 2015 and Dec 24, 2023, here, under Section 130V(1) of the Penal Code.
On the same date, another individual, Nelson Yen Yee Chung, 47, was handed three years jail after pleading guilty to the alternative charge of assisting an organised criminal group, “Geng Upik” to further the interest of the group between 2023 and Dec 24, 2023, under Section 130W of the Penal Code.
On July 16, another man, Zulkahar Dusing, 30, was jailed five years after he changed his plea to guilty to being a member of the organised crime group ‘Geng Upik’, midway through the trial, while the third witness was testifying, under Section 130V(1) of the Penal Code.
Deputy Public Prosecutors Lina Hanini Ismail and Nur Ainaa Ridzwan prosecuted.
Rahman and Jaisalfian were respectively represented by counsel Jakariya Ab Jalil and counsel Muhamad Amirul Amin.
