Magistrate Siti Zubaidah Mahat meted out the sentence after finding Chung Chee Yang, 47, guilty of three amended charges.

For the first charge brought under Section 506 of the Penal Code for criminal intimidation, the magistrate sentenced Chung to five years in prison and fined him RM10,000.

For the second charge under Section 298 of the Penal Code for wounding religious feelings, he was sentenced to one year in prison and fined RM10,000.

For the third charge under Section 323 of the Penal Code for voluntarily causing hurt, Chung received a 10-month prison sentence and a RM2,000 fine.

Siti Zubaidah also ordered Chung to serve an additional 21 months in prison if he failed to pay the fines.

The defence applied for a stay of execution of the sentence pending the disposal of an appeal at the High Court, but the magistrate refused and ordered Chung to serve his prison sentence consecutively from today.

Chung’s lawyer, Abdul Hakeem Aiman, in his mitigation plea argued that his client had cooperated with the authorities and attended every proceeding without fail.

Hakeem also urged the court to take into account Chung’s contributions to society, saying he had helped more than 50 individuals with basic necessities during the movement control order brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Deputy public prosecutor Nuruljannah Aimi, in calling for a stricter sentence, argued that the court need not show mercy to Chung, as he himself showed none to the bodyguards who had served him for nearly a decade.

Chung initially claimed trial in April 2021 to a total of five charges at the Klang magistrates’ court. The first charge accused him of criminal intimidation against his bodyguard Azminizam Zulkepli, 44, by pointing a pistol and threatening to hurt him.

In the second and third charges, Chung was accused of abetting his assistant Choo Hin Voon by ordering the latter to intentionally cause hurt to Azminizam and another victim, Ahmad Shamsuri Zailani, 27, using a rotan.

In the fourth charge, Chung was accused of uttering words against the two victims with the intention of hurting their religious feelings under Section 298 of the Penal Code.

The fifth charge against Chung was for voluntarily causing hurt to Azminizam, brought under Section 323 of the Penal Code.

Choo was also charged, under Section 324, with two counts of voluntarily causing hurt to both victims at the same time and place. Hakeem told FMT today that Choo pleaded guilty to the two charges last year, which led to the prosecution amending the charges against Chung.