KLIA Immigration Officer Caught Accepting RM22,000 Bribe To Release Foreign Detainees
This was not the officer's first offence.
By Lee Yong Jin — 04 Dec 2020, 12:24 PM
An immigration officer stationed at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) was arrested on 2 December for taking bribes to release two China nationals
According to New Straits Times, the 26-year-old officer was caught in the act by Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officers at a petrol station near KLIA at 7.45pm on Wednesday.
The China nationals were previously detained for using fake immigration stamps on 30 November. The RM22,000 bribe solicited by the officer was meant to free them.
Sources said that the officer was acting alone and the bribery was not part of any smuggling syndicate
Source also said that this was not his first offence. Before his arrest, MACC officers questioned a foreign workers' agent in Cheras who revealed that there was an operation behind the bribery.
The immigration officer would provide the agent with information of the China nationals detained in KLIA.
"The agent's job would then be to contact their family members in China to ask for a bribe to free those under custody," New Straits Times quoted sources as saying.
"The families in China would then contact their friends in Malaysia to help prepare the money and hand it over to the agent."
MACC Selangor director Datuk Alias Salim has confirmed the arrest and the case is being investigated under Section 16 of the MACC Act 2009.
Director of Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Selangor Datuk Haji Alias Bin Salim.
Image via New Straits Times