BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

TWO Malaysian men were sentenced to serve jail term yesterday after they pleaded guilty to charges of illegal entry into Brunei.

Defendant Tiong Seng Ket, 31, was sentenced to two years in jail and two strokes of the cane for abetting Leowally Ludin to enter Brunei without a passport.

Meanwhile, co-accused Leowally was ordered to serve three months in jail and three strokes of the cane for entering Brunei without a valid pass.

The court document states that on April 30, a joint-operation by law enforcement agencies at the Ujong Jalan Control Post in Puni, Temburong conducted an inspection on a Toyota Hilux and found a man hiding in the footwell at the back passenger seat.

During investigation, Tiong, driver of the car, admitted he abetted Leowally to enter Brunei without a valid pass.

Leowally admitted that he did hide in the car when they were going through the Limbang checkpoint to avoid from being discovered by the Immigration officers at the Ujong Jalan.

During the proceedings yesterday, the court ordered the defendants to serve their respective jail sentences immediately.

Meanwhile, the Magistrates’ Court yesterday imposed a $1,400 fine to a man who pleaded guilty to charges of exiting and entering Brunei by using a passport under a different name.

The court document states that on May 16, 2014, an immigration officer at the Kuala Lurah Immigration Control post detained defendant Mohd Abdul Azim, 22, after being suspected of using a passport that did not belong to him.

At the time, the defendant and three other family members were at the immigration checkpoint enroute to Kota Kinabalu.

Abdul Azim had handed over a passport under the name Mohd Za’im Ifawandy to the immigration officer, and when he could not give the exact details on the passport such as birthday, identity card number and age, he was subsequently detained.

Investigation later revealed that the defendant had used a passport belonging to his older brother, while the latter was away offshore. The court document states that the passport was taken without his brother’s knowledge and consent.

The defendant’s passport showed that it had ran out of pages for entry stamps, with a final stamp from the Malaysian immigration dated October 17, 2013.

The defendant, in his mitigation, told the court that he committed the offence because he wanted to visit his grandmother in Kota Kinabalu, who was ill at the time.

The presiding magistrate, Ak Shahyzul Khairuddien Pg Abd Rahman, ordered Mohd Abdul Azim to settle the fines by December 31 or face two months in jail for in-default of payment.

The Brunei Times