A three member Court of Appeal bench chaired by Kamaludin Md Said today affirmed the conviction of Mohd Izzwan Jamaluddin by the sessions court three years ago.

Kamaludin, who sat with M Gunalan and Hashim Hamzah, said the jail term was also not excessive, bearing in mind that the maximum for soliciting and accepting a bribe was 20 years.

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act also provides a fine of five times the amount of the bribe solicited and accepted.

However, the bench reduced the jail term imposed for failure to settle the fines from 36 months to 18 months. Izzwan had not paid the fines imposed by the sessions court and therefore had to serve time.

Izzwan, who was then with the narcotics division of the Hulu Terengganu district police headquarters, was sentenced by the sessions court to three years’ jail each on the charges of soliciting and accepting a bribe.

The prison term was to run concurrently, meaning he would serve three years from the date of the conviction. He began his jail term on Feb 25, 2018.

Izzwan, 38 was fined RM25,000, in default 12 months’ jail, for accepting RM5,000 from Syahrull Sharahudeen, who was detained for an alleged drug case, as an inducement for action not to be taken against him.

The offence was committed behind a KFC Restaurant at Kuala Berang on Aug 20, 2015.

He was also fined RM100,000, in default 24 months’ jail, for soliciting RM20,000 from Syahrull for the same purpose at a house in Kampung Durian Kassim, Ajil, on Aug 15, 2015.

Lawyer Amirul Ridzuan Hanif represented Izzwan while deputy public prosecutor Abd Ghafar Abd Latif appeared for the prosecution.