53 Illegal immigrants charged in Butterworth Sessions Court

BUTTERWORTH: Fifty-three illegal immigrants, aged between 18 and 48, were charged in the Sessions Court today for various immigration offences.
Of these, 48 pleaded guilty after the charges were read to them by the court interpreter before Sessions Judge Norhayati Mohd Yunos.
Norhayati sentenced them to between one and 6 months' jail from the date of their arrest last month.
Thirty-seven of them were charged with not having valid travel documents, 12 for overstaying and four for violating their social visit pass.
Of the remaining five, one of them from Myanmar, Abdul Salam, pleaded not guilty to the charge of not having a valid travel document while the cases against the other four - 2 Vietnamese and 2 Bangladeshi - who were also facing similar charges were postponed.
Norhayati fixed Jan 24 for mention of the case against Abdul Salam and the other four illegals.
Outside the court room, Penang Immigration Department prosecuting officer K. Shanmuganathan said the illegals consisted of 28 Myanmar nationals ,11 Indonesians, 10 Bangladeshis, two Vietnamese, a Cambodian and a Nepalese.
"They were all detained during several raids conducted by the department last month," he told reporters.
The illegals were not represented.