Four cleared of forgery charge over P’pang land

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Levita and the Moikon brothers with defence counsel Zahir Shah (centre) outside the Sessions Court yesterday after being acquitted of their charges.

Levita and the Moikon brothers with defence counsel Zahir Shah (centre) outside the Sessions Court yesterday after being acquitted of their charges.

KOTA KINABALU: The Sessions Court here yesterday freed a woman and three brothers of a joint charge of using as genuine, a forged document.

Judge Azreena Aziz acquitted and discharged Levita Michael @ Levita Lonjunang, 54, Claudeus Moikon, 54, Julius Moikon, 56, and Jeremy Moikon, 42, after ruling that the prosecution had failed to establish a case beyond reasonable doubt against them.

Levita and the Moikon brothers were alleged to have forged and used an inheritance letter dated March 3, 1999 pertaining to a plot of ancestral land at the Native Court in Penampang at 9am on March 4 of the same year.

The charge against them under Section 471 of the Penal Code carries a jail term of up to two years and liable to a fine, or both, upon conviction.

Meanwhile, Levita was also acquitted of an alternative charge of forgery for the purpose of cheating.

Levita had allegedly forged the fingerprints of Lojuning Moikon for the purpose of transferring the land ownership to the Moikon brothers.

She was alleged to have committed the offence at the same place on March 3, 1999.

The offence was framed under Section 468 of the Penal Code, which provides for a maximum jail term of seven years and a fine, upon conviction.

Defence counsel Zahir Shah represented all the accused persons while deputy public prosecutor Chow Siang Kong appeared for the prosecution.

A total of 10 defence witnesses had been called to testify.