Jail term increased for duo who raised funds for IS

PUTRAJAYA: A financial consultant and a cafe manager who solicited contributions for the benefit of the Islamic State (IS) militant group will spend a longer time in prison after the Court of Appeal here today increased their jail sentence to 15 years.

Rohaimi Abd Rahim, 39, and Muhamad Fauzi Misrak, 37, were sentenced to three years’ jail each by the Kuala Lumpur High Court on Feb 2 this year after they pleaded guilty to two terrorism-related offences.

A three-man bench of the Court of Appeal, led by Justice Mohtaruddin Baki, enhanced their prison sentence after allowing the prosecution’s appeal for a heavier jail term.

He said the prosecution’s appeal had merit because the punishment meted out by the Kuala Lumpur High Court did not reflect the seriousness of the offence.

Rohaimi was sentenced to three years for soliciting contributions to benefit the terrorist group through blog Revolusi Islam.com, while Muhamad Fauzi was sentenced to three years’ jail for conspiring with Rohaimi to solicit contributions for the terrorist group by allowing his Maybank account to be used in the blog.

They pleaded guilty to committing the offence at their premises in Jalan Raja Ali, Kampung Baru, Kuala Lumpur, between March 29, 2014 and Oct 13, 2014.

The duo were also sentenced to two years’ jail each on a joint charge of arranging to facilitate acquisition and control of property for IS terrorists at a Subang Jaya Maybank branch in Subang Jaya, Selangor, between December 2013 and July 2014.

They were ordered by the High Court to serve their sentences concurrently.
Justice Mohtaruddin, who presided on the panel with Justices Zakaria Sam and Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil, increased the jail term to 15 years on each charge, but ordered them to serve the sentences concurrently from the date of their arrest on Oct 13, 2014.

Earlier, Deputy Public Prosecutor Tetralina Ahmed Fauzi submitted that the offence committed by the duo was serious as they had provided contributions to the terrorist group.

Lawyer Amer Hamzah Arshad, representing the duo, argued that the three-year jail term was sufficient since they had pleaded guilty to the charges and had realised that they had made a mistake.

Amer Hamzah later told reporters that he had received instructions to appeal against the Court of Appeal’s decision to increase the jail term.

– BERNAMA