Friday 2 January 2009

Six months jail for Sabah ex-Minister

Sabah former Culture, Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Conrad Mojuntin was this morning sentenced to six months jail by the Kota Kinabalu High Court for criminal intimidation.

He was further ordered by Judicial Commissioner Datuk Abdul Rahman Sebli to pay RM2,000 fine in default three months jail to a charge of voluntarily causing hurt on which he was jointly charged with nephew David Mojuntin.

The jail sentence was to take effect today but Conrad applied for stay of execution as he wanted to appeal against the High Court’s decision to the Court of Appeal.

Abdul Rahman granted Conrad’s application and released him on RM5,000 bail in two local sureties.

Conrad, 61, was charged with criminally intimidating businessman Doughty Disimon, 31, outside the SJD Café and Sports at 3.30am on Oct 23, 2005 behind the Public Bank, Donggongon Penampang.

The offence under Section 506 of the Penal Code carries a jail term of up to two years or fine or both on conviction.

The ex-minister was also jointly charged with David, 45, for voluntarily causing hurt to Chee Hee Fatt, 45, at 4am on Oct 23, 2005, also at the same place.

The offence under Section 323 of the Penal Code read with Section 34 of the same Code provides a jail term of up to one year of both.

Both Mojuntins were discharged and acquitted of both the charges by the Magistrate’s Court on March 31, 2008.

The prosecution appeal to the High Court against the Magistrate’s Court decision and on Dec 17, 2008 Abdul Rahman Sebli allowed the appeal.

He held that the magistrate had seriously misdirected himself when he ruled that the prosecution had failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.

The judge set aside the magistrate order of acquittal and substitute it with an order of conviction on both charges against Conrad and David. Abdul Rahman, however, deferred sentencing to Jan 2, 2009.

The Mojuntins were represented by lawyer Zahir Hussein Ahmad Shah while Senior Federal Counsel Salim Soib Hamid conducted the prosecution.

1 comment:

northborneo said...

happy new year JB,

u were not in court, yet u file the story faster than the court reporter.

boleh tahan, boss.