JOHOR BARU, April 25 — Eight youths were charged in the Magistrate’s Court here today with three offences, including criminal intimidation, attempted assault, and the wrongful confinement of a man last week.
The accused included Muhammad Aqmal Hafifi Mustafa Kamal, 25; Ahmad Rushdi Jumadi, 23; Muhammad Nur Shafiq Abdullah, 25; and Muhammad Haikal Zulkarnain, 19.
Also charged were Mohamad Amierul Hakim Shamsuri, 23; Mohamad Danish Hakim Kamaruddin, 20; Syamsul Hamiey Saiful Razali, 19; and the sole female accused, Balqqisyh Anabella Norazman, 22.
All eight pleaded guilty to three charges — criminal intimidation, extortion, and wrongful confinement — while the seven male accused also pleaded guilty to a fourth charge of voluntarily causing hurt to the victim.
The plea came shortly after the charges were read out before Magistrate Atifah Azimah Wahab.
Under the first charge, all eight individuals were jointly charged with criminally intimidating Muhammad Faris Syahmi Mohd Ridzwan, 22, by threatening to cause his death with the intention to terrify the victim.
For the second charge, the eight accused, together with two others who are still at large, had intentionally committed extortion by causing fear to Muhammad Faris Syahmi that they would not stop assaulting him until he agreed to pay RM3,000.
This prompted the victim to hand over RM650 in cash and the keys to a Yamaha Y16 motorcycle to the accused, Mohammad Amierul Hakim.
Under the third charge, all the accused, as well as two others who are still at large, were jointly charged with unlawfully confining the victim.
All seven male accused also pleaded guilty to a fourth charge of intentionally causing injury to Muhammad Faris Syahmi, with one other person still at large.
The offences were committed at an apartment unit in Plentong, Masai, near here, between 10pm and 4am on April 18 and 19.
For the first three offences, the accused were charged under Section 506 of the Penal Code for criminal intimidation, Section 384 for extortion and Section 342 for wrongful confinement under the same Code.
The fourth charge was framed under Section 323 of the Penal Code for voluntarily causing hurt, which provides for a prison sentence of up to 10 years or a fine or both, if convicted.
The case was prosecuted by Johor state prosecution director Abdul Ghafar Ab Latif and Deputy Public Prosecutors Nik Nuraini Nik Azman and Nur Fatihah Mohd Nizam. All eight accused were represented by National Legal Aid Foundation (YBGK) counsels Norfarahin Mohd Yazid and T. Nadarajan.
Earlier, Abdul Ghafar requested that the court impose bail of RM10,000 and one surety on each charge.
He explained that this would see the seven male accused be granted a bail amount of RM40,000 each for the four charges, while the sole female accused Balqqisyh Anabella will be granted a bail amount of RM30,000 for the three charges she faces.
However, Norfarahin requested that the court take into account the guilty pleas of the accused and sought to impose a lower bail amount.
She said three of the accused, including the Balqqisyh Anabella, are currently unemployed, while four others work as factory workers and another works as a club worker, earning between RM1,200 and RM2,000 a month.
Atifah Azimah then ordered all seven male accused to be offered bail at RM16,000 with one surety, while Balqqisyh Anabella was offered bail at RM14,000 with one surety.
The court fixed June 3 for mention of the case and sentencing.
On Tuesday, it was reported that police had arrested eight youths, including a woman, in connection with the alleged assault of a man at a flat in Plentong Baru near Masai here last Friday.
The alleged incident took place at around 9.30pm, when the victim, a factory operator from Kluang, came after being invited by a woman he had met through a social media app.
Previously, several Facebook video clips of the incident were widely circulated, where a young man was violently assaulted by a group of men in an apartment.
