A total of five local social influencers were hauled to two separate magistrate’s courts in Kuala Lumpur today upon charges of promoting online gambling on various platforms last month.
NST reported that the accused were Aileen Koh Ooi Leng, Hayatunnuffus Zakariya, Nurul Syifa Aliya Adanan, Nurazalina Mustafa, and Noor Shahnez Marzuani, who had the charges read out to them before magistrates Aina Azahra Arifin and Illi Marisqa Khalizan.
5 M’sian social influencers accused of promoting online gambling
For Koh, the charge sheet alleged that she had promoted online gambling at a Sentul restaurant at about 8.23am on June 13.
She was charged under Section 8(1) of the Common Gaming Houses Act, which provides a fine from between RM20,000 to RM200,000 and a maximum jail term of five years.
As for Hayatunnuffus and Noor Shahnez, they were accused of announcing or publishing by promoting online gambling platforms on their Instagram accounts to lure or deceive others to gamble at a common gaming house.
They allegedly committed the act at 9am and 9.30am at two restaurants in Bandar Tun Razak and Taman Maluri in Cheras on the same day.
Nurul Syifa and Nurazalina, the remaining accused, were charged with promoting online gambling platforms such as Winbox.World, KK8, We1Win and Lucky365 on Instagram accounts handled by them using iPhone 11 Pro Max and iPhone 13 Pro smartphones.
The offense was allegedly committed at 7am and 7.30am at the Kuala Lumpur Police Training Centre’s Gambling Prevention Unit in Wangsa Maju on the same day.
The four of them were jointly charged under Section 4(1)(g) of the same Act which carries a fine of between RM5,000 and RM50,000 and a jail term of up to three years if convicted.
A fine of between RM5,000 and RM50,000 for each gambling machine seized also awaits them.
Pled not guilty
NST reported that all five social influencers pleaded not guilty to the charges.
During proceedings involving Hayatunnuffus and Koh, prosecuting officer Assistant Superintendent Nom Phot Prack Dit offered bail at RM5,000 with one surety for each of them.
However, their counsel Azlan Abdul Razak dan V. Varunnath requested for a lower amount, citing that neither of them had a stable income, leading the court to set bail at RM4,000 with one surety each and fixing Aug 15 and 26 for mention.
In the case of Nurul Syifa, Nurazalina and Noor Shahnez, deputy public prosecutor Hamizah Hisan proposed bail at RM15,000 with one surety each, but was met with objection by their lawyers, who said the trio needed to support their families.
In the end, magistrate Illi Marisqa fixed bail at RM5,000 with one surety for each of them and set Aug 15 for mention.
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