KUCHING: The Sessions Court has sentenced four foreign fishermen to 20 months in prison for their involvement in transporting and possessing subsidised and scheduled controlled items, which included 1,644kg of sugar and 10 gas cylinders.
Judge Saiful Bahari Adzmi imposed the sentence on Deki Saputra, 44, Masfarudin, 55, Aldi, 48, and Ferdianshah, 31, who each pleaded guilty to two charges read jointly before them.
Under the first charge, they were collectively charged under Section 21 of the Control of Supplies Act 1961 (Act 122) and can be punished under Section 22(1) of the same Act, read together with Section 34 of the Penal Code, for possessing scheduled controlled items, namely 1,644kg of sugar.
For this offence, Judge Saiful imposed a 12-month prison sentence on all the accused.
As for the second charge, all the accused were charged under Section 20(1)(a) of the Gas Distribution Ordinance 2016 (Chapter 72) and could be punished under it for collectively carrying out the intention to transport 10 subsidised gas cylinders without a permit issued by the Gas Supply Director.
Judge Saiful imposed a 20-month prison sentence on all the accused, in addition to ordering the sentences to run concurrently, effective from the date of their arrest on Sept 14.
They collectively committed this offence on a ship in the South China Sea near Sematan, approximately 2.7 nautical miles west of Pulau Talang Besar, around 4pm on Sept 14.
According to the case facts, during the incident, a team of maritime personnel left the jetty to carry out Operation Permai duties to track a suspicious ship, then approached and instructed the ship to stop.
Inspection of the ship revealed that it was carrying scheduled controlled items, namely 1,644kg of sugar and 10 gas cylinders, without a permit, suspected to have been taken out of Malaysia.
During the proceedings, deputy public prosecutor Ashok Linggam requested that all the accused be given a heavy sentence as a deterrent and in the public interest, considering that the seized items were controlled goods.
Meanwhile, deputy public prosecutor Ronald Felix Hardin, along with prosecution officer Johny Ikau, informed the judge that this was the first case charged under the Gas Distribution Ordinance 2016 (Chapter 72).
The judge has been informed by the prosecutor that subsidised LPG gas is intended for the use of Sarawak’s residents and is only meant for the domestic market; unfortunately, all four accused were involved in smuggling it out of Sarawak.
