KOTA KINABALU: The High Court yesterday granted bail to a staff of the Kota Kinabalu Courts charged with receiving a bribe from a woman for the payment of an application for a late registration of birth three years ago.
Judicial Commissioner Lee Heng Cheong allowed the application made by Jinny Daniul’s counsel, Ram Singh and released her on a new bail set at RM10,000, with RM5,000 deposited with two local sureties, pending disposal of her case.
The Sessions Court had on August 6 this year revoked Jinny’s bail after she turned up in court to explain her absence from a previous hearing.
On July 5 this year the subordinate court issued an arrest warrant against Jinny after she failed to appear in court when her case came up for a scheduled trial.
Her counsel subsequently filed for a revision at the High Court against the Sessions Court’s order of August 6 and the application was heard yesterday.
Singh submitted that the bail should not be revoked in Jinny’s absence as she is still a court staff and that she had been remanded in custody for one week while at the same time her daughter was suffering from asthma.
“My client is going to reside at Kampung Inobong, Penampang with her mother, and not with the husband, and I urge the court to maintain bail at the same amount,” Singh submitted.
In her counter reply, deputy public prosecutor Joyce Blasius of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) objected to bail on the ground that Jinny had once absent herself from her trial and she had run away by virtue of a letter given to her husband and there was no guarantee that she would not abscond in the future.