Court staff’s graft trial rescheduled as new counsel engaged

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KOTA KINABALU: The Corruption Court here adjourned to November 12, 14 and 16 this year the trial of a staff member of the Kota Kinabalu Court House, who faces three corruption charges.

Judge Nixon Kenedy Kumbong rescheduled the hearing of Jinny Daniul, 30, after her previous lawyer Ram Singh informed the court that he wanted to discharge himself as Jinny’s counsel, when the trial was supposed to continue yesterday.

Since the trial commenced on October 16 this year, deputy public prosecutor Joyce Blasius had called 10 witnesses to testify.

In the morning’s proceedings, Ram Singh said the accused’s mother had shown her discontentment at the way he (Ram Singh) had conducted the trial.

He also said that Jinny’s mother had indicated that she wanted another lawyer to represent her daughter (Jinny) to which Ram Singh had no other alternative but to discharge himself officially as her counsel.

The counsel added that he would not think that he had shown any misconduct throughout the trial as shown in the notes of proceedings.

On the first count, Jinny, who was defended by her newly appointed counsel Pontius Alludah, was alleged to have received RM50 in cash from Maslina Abd Sali, 40, who works at the court as a cleaner, for giving her the application to apply for the late birth registration for her daughter without any trial before the magistrate.

The second and the third charges accused her of corruptly receiving another RM100 respectively from a local man, Hon Sun Wan, as payment to process the late birth applications from certified extracts of birth certificates under the names of Jennifer Hon and Hon Yi Mei respectively.

The alleged offences were committed at the Kota Kinabalu Courts House here between June 2010 and Dec 17, 2010.

The accused is also facing three alternative charges of forging the signature of magistrate Cindy Mc Juce Balitus on the three birth certificates for the purpose of cheating at the same time and place.

Each of the alternative charges framed under Section 468 of the Penal Code is punishable by a jail term of up seven years and shall also be liable to a fine, upon conviction.

The court extended Jinny’s bail of RM10,000 with RM5,000 deposited with two local sureties pending disposal of her case.

Meanwhile, in the afternoon proceedings, Alludah explained that he had just been appointed by the accused and the prosecution had served copies of the charges to him.

He then applied for a month’s adjournment for him to peruse Jinny’s case to which Blasius left the matter to the court.