JOHOR BARU, Nov 17 — Nine Immigration Department officers, together with four others, were placed under remand by the Magistrate’s Court here today for their alleged involvement in forging foreign passport stamps.

The 13 male suspects, aged between 35 and 45, were taken to court by bus and arrived at the Magistrate’s Court here at 9.15am. They were all clad in the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) orange lock-up shirts.

A seven-day remand order starting today was issued by Assistant Registrar Mohammad Salehuddin Abd Sani.

It is understood that the Immigration Department officers allegedly received payments of between RM100 and RM500 to forge the stamps on each foreign passport since 2017.

The accused are being investigated under Section 17 (a) of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act 2009.

The case was handled by MACC Senior Deputy Public Prosecutor Mahadi Abd Jumaat.

The nine Immigration Department officers were represented by lawyer S. Bharathi, while the remaining four accused, who allegedly acted as agents, were represented by lawyers Noordin Hussein, Baharudin Baharim and Amarpreet Singh.

The 13 accused were among 43 individuals detained by the MACC in Johor and Selangor yesterday.

The arrests were made at the Customs, Immigration and Quarantine Complex (CIQ) of the Sultan Iskandar Building here, while the other 30 suspects were detained at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) in Selangor.

The suspects’ activities are believed to have involved the stamping of foreign passports at the country’s border control exit points without the document holder being physically present.