KOTA KINABALU: Twenty-five foreigners were charged at the Immigration Court here yesterday with entering the country illegally.
The first batch of 11, consisting of six women and five men who were produced before judge Mohd Hafizi Halim, pleaded guilty to the charge under Section 6 of the Immigration Act 1959/63, which carries a fine of up to RM10,000, or a prison term not exceeding five years, or both, and not more than six strokes of the cane.
The women were sentenced to four months’ imprisonment each while three of the five men were sentenced to five months’ imprisonment and two strokes of the cane, while the other two were given five months’ imprisonment.
A second group of 14 men were also charged with the same offence of illegally entering the country, out of which 13 pleaded guilty.
Of the 13, 11 were sentenced to five months’ imprisonment and ordered to be whipped twice, while three others only have to serve a five-month prison term.
All 25 of them were also ordered by Mohd Hafizi to be referred to the Immigration Department for further action.
During mitigation, all of them asked to be given light sentences and to serve their prison terms from their date of arrest.
Assistant Superintendent Sabrina Jinnus, who acted for the prosecution, asked that a deterrent sentence be given to all of them before urging the court to refer the foreigners to the Immigration Department for deportation.
All of them aged between 18 and 53, were detained around Kota Kinabalu, Kinarut, Tuaran and Tamparuli between November 21 and December 5.
Meanwhile, one of the foreigners, Norahman Oni, 29, pleaded not guilty to the offence and informed the court that he had proper documentation.
Judge Mohd Hafizi then asked him why the documents that Norahman had presented belonged to his brother, and gave two weeks for the prosecution to ascertain whether the documents are valid.
He had been charged for entering the country illegally after being detained on December 2 at the handicraft market in Kota Kinabalu.
The court fixed December 30 for the next hearing of his case before ordering the accused be remanded under Section 259 of the Criminal Procedure Code, pending disposal of the case.