Immigration officer awaiting trial for human trafficking gets bail
PUTRAJAYA : An immigration officer charged with human trafficking but whose trial is only scheduled to begin two years from now has been granted bail by the Court of Appeal.
A three-member bench chaired by Justice Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim said Hafiz Amir suffers from asthma and has been undergoing treatment while in custody, both in prison and at a government clinic.
Also on the panel hearing the application were Justices Azmi Ariffin and Choo Kah Sing.
The court granted Hafiz, 33, bail of RM15,000 in one surety, and ordered that he surrender his passport to the court and report once a month to the nearest police station.
Hafiz, stationed at KLIA2, and Nasrullah Bakar, 27, were charged with smuggling three Vietnamese nationals into the country at 4.40pm on June 30 last year.
He was detained under Section 26B(d) of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants Act 2007 (Atipsom), listed as a security offence in the first schedule of the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act (Sosma).
Under the provision, bail is not permitted except to those aged below 18, women, or who are sick or infirm.
Trial has been scheduled for June 7, 2027, at the High Court in Shah Alam.
Hafiz's first application for bail was dismissed.
Lawyers Harpal Singh and Farah Sofea Rudin Shah appeared for Hafiz, while deputy public prosecutor Zaki Ashraf Zubair acted for the prosecution.
Last week, the Federal Court allowed bail for two businessmen charged with a security offence of being members of an organised group pending the outcome of their trial with several conditions attached.
In a split decision, Justice Nallini Pathmanathan said the majority judges on the three-member bench were of the view that N Nithiyan, 40, and S Hemanathan, 32, had made out a case for bail primarily due to their health conditions.
Nallini said the Sungai Buloh prison system could not attend to or care for prisoners who need special medical attention.
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