The Federal Court has upheld an eight-year prison sentence for four Indonesians convicted of smuggling 29 migrants into Malaysia by boat.
PUTRAJAYA: The Federal Court has upheld an eight-year prison sentence for four Indonesian nationals convicted of smuggling migrants into Malaysia.
A three-judge panel led by Chief Justice Datuk Seri Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh dismissed the final appeals by Zali Saad, 46, Tengku Mohd Bashah Tengku Husin, 34, Adi Bastian Bustami, 50, and Mohd Yusof Husin, 40.
The court ordered the four men to serve their sentence from the date of their arrest on January 26, 2023.
The defendants had pleaded guilty in the Shah Alam High Court to smuggling 29 migrants aboard an unregistered fibreglass boat near Tanjung Rhu, Sepang.
They were each sentenced to eight years in prison on June 11, 2024.
A subsequent appeal to the Court of Appeal was dismissed on January 3 last year, leading to their final appeal to the Federal Court.
During today’s proceedings, their counsel Collin Arvind Andrew requested a sentence reduction to seven years.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Abdul Malik Ayob argued that neither the High Court nor the Court of Appeal had erred in their decisions.
The case facts revealed that the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) intercepted the boat during an operation in the Straits of Melaka.
Personnel discovered the four Indonesians along with three Myanmar nationals and 26 Indonesians attempting to enter Malaysia illegally.
