Court upholds bribery convictions of 3 cops, acquits 1

2026-03-17 - 06:04

The Johor Bahru High Court has upheld the convictions of police officers Zulhisham Zulkafli, Shahir Dewi and Syukur Gulam for soliciting RM7,000 from a suspect in a drug case on April 10, 2018. (Wikimedia Commons pic) PETALING JAYA: The Johor Bahru High Court today dismissed the appeals of three police officers against their convictions for soliciting and receiving a bribe from a drug suspect eight years ago, but acquitted a fourth man jointly charged with them. Justice Atan Mustaffa Yussof Ahmad upheld the convictions and sentences imposed by the sessions court on Zulhisham Zulkafli, Shahir Dewi and Syukur Gulam, on grounds that there was no appealable error. He also said the sentence of a four‐year jail term and a RM10,000 fine each imposed on the trio was not manifestly excessive. “Police officers in positions of trust who abuse their authority to extort money from civilians caught with drugs are properly regarded as serious offenders. “Such conduct undermines public confidence in law enforcement, corrupts the administration of justice, and exploits the vulnerability of detainees,” said Atan. The judge, however, acquitted another officer, Azim Adnan, holding that there was no direct evidence from witnesses pointing to his involvement in the offence. According to the facts of the case, Zulhisham, Shahir and Syukur threatened the suspect on April 10, 2018, demanding RM7,000 in exchange for not taking action against him and a friend for drug possession. On the day in question, the three officers confronted the suspect upon his arrival at a friend’s house in Kangkar Pulai. They took the suspect inside and found a plastic container in his bag, believed to contain shabu. Shahir questioned the suspect and his friend about the drugs, but the friend asked if the matter could be “settled”. Zulhisham replied: “Nak kira macam mana?” (How shall we compute this?) The suspect and his friend were then driven to the Kangkar Pulai police station compound. During the trip, Zulhisham asked the suspect to prepare RM7,000, purportedly as bail money. The suspect later paid them RM1,600, using money borrowed from his mother. Neither the suspect nor his friend was formally arrested that day. The following day, the suspect lodged a report over the incident with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC). MACC then recorded separate telephone conversations between the suspect and Zulhisham and Shahir, during which they demanded more money. MACC officers conducted an operation to trap Shahir on April 12, 2018. He was charged and convicted of receiving RM1,400 during the sting operation and sentenced to four years’ imprisonment, to run concurrently with his other sentence. Shahir’s additional conviction and sentence were also upheld by the High Court.