KUCHING: Two Indonesian fishing boat skippers were fined RM600,000 each while four crew members were fined RM60,000 each by the Sessions Court here today for illegally fishing in Malaysian waters last month.
Kamisa, 45, and Suhardly, 48, who were the skippers, along with crew members Wahyudi, 25, Suherman, 44, Ocep, 41, and Kamarulzaman, 32, pleaded guilty to their respective charges before Judge Iris Awen Jon.
According to the charges, Kamisa, together with Wahyudi, Suherman and Ocep, was found fishing in Malaysian waters aboard a foreign fishing vessel about 170.9 nautical miles from the Tun Abang Salahuddin Maritime Complex (KOMTAS) here at about 11:35 am on July 23.
Meanwhile, Suhardly and Kamarulzaman were charged with committing the same offence aboard another foreign fishing vessel about 120.3 nautical miles from Tanjung Po here at about 11:30 am on July 25.
The charges were framed under Section 15(1)(a) of the Fisheries Act 1985 (Act 317), read together with subsection 24 of the same Act, and punishable under paragraph 25(a), read together with subsections 52(1)(a)(i) and (ii) of the same Act.
Iris ordered all six accused to serve four months in prison if they failed to pay their respective fines.
The court also ordered the two foreign fishing vessels to be forfeited to the Malaysian Government.
According to the facts of the case, the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) was conducting ‘Ops Permai’, ‘Ops Naga’ and ‘Ops Tiris’ in Sarawak waters during the two separate incidents on July 23 and 25.
The operations led to the interception of two foreign fishing vessels which had entered Sarawak waters to carry out illegal fishing activities.
Four foreign nationals were detained aboard one of the vessels, which was found with about 100kg of fish.
The other two were detained aboard the second vessel, which was carrying about 50kg of fish.
Investigations into both cases found that all six accused had illegally entered Malaysian waters aboard foreign fishing vessels to carry out fishing activities.
Deputy Public Prosecutor, Haffiza Jemali, prosecuted the case, while all six accused were unrepresented.
