A leading Malaysian reporter caught in a hotel raid allegedly accepting bribes to drop an investigation into a migrant-trafficking syndicate at Kuala Lumpur International Airport has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.
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Malaysia has seen trafficking syndicates and corruption linked to its labour demands for migrant workers, with its main airport often in the spotlight of scandals, including last year when thousands of Bangladeshi migrants arriving on fake job offers were forced into illegal work and overstay.
B. Nantha Kumar, 42, a senior reporter at prominent local online outlet Malaysiakini, was arrested on February 28 at a hotel in Shah Alam by officers from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) on suspicion of soliciting and accepting a 20,000 ringgit (US$4,500) bribe from alleged traffickers in return for taking down stories related to their operation.
On Friday, he pleaded not guilty at the High Court in Shah Alam to accepting a bribe under the MACC Act 2019.
In a long rebuttal published by Malaysiakini, he previously accused officials of entrapment saying he “never contacted these agents to ask for a bribe. It was these agents who repeatedly offered to bribe me”.
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Yet if convicted, he faces a 20-year prison term and fines not less than five times the amount of the bribe.
The case shocked Malaysia, which has been following Nantha’s investigations into the migrant labour syndicate he alleges was led by a former top-ranking immigration officer working with Pakistani nationals.